Israeli forces occupy homes, enforce curfew in Qabatiya, West Bank.
Israeli forces have conducted mass arrests and forcibly displaced dozens of families from their homes in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank, on the second day of a large-scale military operation ordered by Israel's defense minister.
Israeli forces sealed off entrances to Qabatiya while rounding up and interrogating dozens of residents on Saturday, local sources told Al Jazeera. They converted several homes into military interrogation centres, displacing their occupants, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Israel’s Army Radio reported that the town is subject to a “full curfew”.
The crackdown follows an order by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to “act forcefully … against the village of Qabatiya”, where he claims a Palestinian alleged of carrying out a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel hails from.
In a statement on Friday, Israel’s military said it had deployed troops from multiple divisions, along with border police and members of the Shin Bet security service, into Qabatiya. It said forces had raided the attack suspect’s home and were preparing to demolish it.
Rights groups have long condemned Israel’s practice of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis, describing it as an illegal form of collective punishment.
Israel’s military claimed its forces would “scan additional locations in the village” and “work to arrest wanted individuals and locate weapons”.
“There is a sense of fear among people in town,” one resident told Al Jazeera. “There are Israeli threats and Israeli incitement.”
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