West Bank Sweep Follows Deadly Friday Clashes
The Israeli military reported detaining more than 70 suspects across the West Bank during the night of Friday into Saturday, one day after troops deployed throughout the territory following violence that left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian villagers dead.
Forces remained stationed in the village of Tell, in the northern West Bank, where Friday's clashes were concentrated. The army said it searched more than 300 locations and detained individuals it described as Hamas affiliates, arms traffickers, and 'terrorists.'
Palestinian officials put the arrest figure higher. Amin Shuman, president of the Palestinian Supreme Commission for Prisoner Affairs, said more than 80 Palestinians were arrested across the territory and characterized the operation as 'an attempt to impose collective punitive measures and retaliatory policies' against Palestinian civilians.
Hospital Raid Draws Sharp Condemnation
Among the most contested episodes was a raid on the Nablus Specialized Hospital. Ghassan Barkat, the hospital's director, told reporters that 'more than 50 soldiers and armed officers stormed the hospital, terrorizing patients.' He said Friday's operation involved soldiers detaining, binding, and insulting staff and patients, searching hospital departments, and arresting a critically wounded man, Ali Hussein Ali Ramadan. 'This should not happen in a health institution,' Barkat said, noting women and children were present.
The Israeli army's statement made no mention of the hospital.
Tell Incident: Competing Accounts
The precise circumstances of Friday's events in Tell remained unclear. Israeli media reports and interviews with local Palestinian officials indicate a group of settlers entered the village — an area off-limits to Israelis under the Area B designation of the 1993 Oslo Accords — and was confronted by residents who feared an attack. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians in Tell; the army reported two soldiers killed, one of them a settler serving in a local defense squad. Two additional Israelis and four more Palestinians were wounded.
On Saturday, the army also reported that Israeli and Palestinian civilians exchanged stone-throwing in the West Bank village of Susya, and that a weapon belonging to an off-duty soldier was stolen and later recovered.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 that Palestinians claim for an independent state alongside the Gaza Strip.
Gaza: At Least Four Dead in Airstrikes
Separately, at least four Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded Saturday in Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, an airstrike killed a man and a woman whose bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital. In northern Gaza, a vehicle strike in the Jabaliya area killed one person and wounded two others. A motorcycle strike in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood killed the local police force director, according to the Interior Ministry and Shifa Hospital. In central Gaza, several Israeli drones struck near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, wounding 10 people. The Israeli army said it struck a Hamas military wing operative near Al-Aqsa Hospital.
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CEO Times view: The West Bank operation underscores the compounding security calculus Israel faces on two simultaneous fronts — sustained Gaza operations and an increasingly volatile West Bank. For investors and regional partners, the pattern of escalation raises legitimate questions about the timeline for any durable stabilization. Order is the precondition for commerce; without it, capital stays on the sidelines. The rules-based framework that underpins regional investment — from logistics corridors to energy infrastructure — depends on a security environment that, by any measure, remains fragile.
