Qabalan: Palestinians, including students, suffered from tear gas inhalation Monday during an Israeli raid on the town of Qabalan, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, local sources told Anadolu. Israeli military vehicles stormed Qabalan and fired tear gas and stun grenades in the town's streets and around schools, causing suffocation among residents, including students, the sources said.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported it received information about an injured young man in Qabalan, but Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching him. Efforts are currently underway to coordinate with the International Committee of the Red Cross to allow medical teams to reach the injured Palestinian. The nature and severity of the young man's injury remain unclear.
The raid followed a report from the Israeli army regarding an alleged stabbing attempt in the area of the nearby Palestinian village of Osarin. Israel's public broadcaster KAN mentioned that an occupier was injured in a stabbing attack Monday morning in the Ma'oz Yehuda illegal settlement near Osarin. The Israeli army later claimed that a person armed with a knife stabbed the occupier and fled the scene, leading to a large deployment of forces in the area. In a subsequent statement, the army announced that its forces had killed the alleged attacker during the pursuit.
In a related event in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities demolished three Palestinian homes in the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, citing they were built without permits. The Jerusalem Governorate, affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, reported that Israeli bulldozers demolished three homes belonging to the Abu Mayala family, which had stood for 20 years. This action displaced 21 family members and turned their homes into rubble. Israeli forces reportedly stormed the area with bulldozers in the morning, preventing the family from removing belongings before demolishing the homes.
The governorate indicated that these demolitions are part of an ongoing policy targeting the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem through home demolitions, restrictions, and measures that expose Jerusalemite families to the risk of losing their homes and being displaced. Palestinian, Israeli, and international rights groups assert that Israeli authorities carry out demolitions and limit building permits granted to Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem in an attempt to reduce the number of Palestinians in the city, while Israeli governments, in contrast, grant numerous building permits for illegal settlement units on city land.
Palestinians maintain their claim to East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, a position unrecognized internationally as Israel considers both East and West Jerusalem its capital. The occupied Palestinian territories frequently witness violence, including shootings, stabbings, and car-ramming attacks amid occupier attacks, Israel's genocide in Gaza, and its escalation in the occupied West Bank.
Currently, around 750,000 Israeli occupiers reside in 156 illegal settlements and 360 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, engaging in actions aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians. Since the onset of Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip in 2023, Israeli army attacks and occupier terrorism in the occupied West Bank have resulted in over 1,000 Palestinian deaths, more than 12,000 injuries, and around 24,000 arrests.