Israeli raid in West Bank’s Qalandiya injures 51 Palestinians

A “large-scale” Israeli raid in the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has injured at least 51 Palestinians, the Jerusalem Governorate told Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces demolished commercial shops near the Qalandiya checkpoint on Thursday, before imposing a curfew on the neighbouring town of Kafr Aqab and sealing off roads linking the area to Jerusalem.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 35 people were hospitalised after severe beatings and six more were treated at the scene. One person was hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Six others suffered tear gas inhalation, according to PRCS.

The organisation said its ambulance crews had been blocked from reaching the wounded since late at night on Wednesday, though crews still managed to evacuate several patients, including people requiring kidney dialysis.

Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades at journalists stationed at the camp’s entrance and ordered them to leave.

Dozens of Palestinians, including children and women, were detained for field interrogations inside homes converted into makeshift holding sites, according to local Palestinian media.

Israeli forces also raided the city of Jenin on Thursday, shooting one Palestinian and assaulting another, according to PRCS.

Israeli army attacks and settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have intensified in the past months, moving in tandem with increased demolitions of Palestinian property and illegal seizure of their land.

Rights groups have recorded more than 11,000 Israeli military and settler attacks across the West Bank in the first half of this year alone – with more than 2,300 Palestinians forced from their homes due to settler violence and related restrictions.

A United Nations-appointed commission of inquiry concluded in June that Israeli authorities have repeatedly failed to prevent foreseeable settler attacks and investigate and punish those responsible.

In some cases, Israeli authorities directly enabled violence through army protection and the provision of weapons and funding to settlers, the investigators said.

Israel has banned UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating in occupied East Jerusalem and demolished several of the agency’s facilities there, including near Qalandiya.

Since taking on authority over civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has approved, legalised or re-established more than 104 illegal settlements and 160 agricultural outposts. Meanwhile, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has distributed thousands of firearms to settlers through state-backed “civil defence” programmes.

Several Western governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada and France, have sanctioned individual settlers as well as sitting ministers, such as Smotrich, over their role in the violence.

In one of his first decrees after returning to the White House last year, US President Donald Trump revoked limited US sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians.