Israel blow up Fatah Balata camp HQ as West Bank raids continue

Israeli forces have blown up the Fatah party’s headquarters in the Balata refugee camp, on the outskirts of Nablus, as Israel’s violent incursions in the West Bank continued for a second day on Wednesday.

Citing local sources and eyewitnesses, Palestinian media said Israeli soldiers stormed the eastern area of Balata’s Al-Quds Street and the Beit Furik military checkpoint with bulldozers, before reaching the Fatah building and subsequently blowing it up.

A number of homes were raided in the process, using gas and sound bombs, as well as gunfire, witnesses and local media said.

The loud explosion could be heard in videos shared online by witnesses, which also showed heavy smoke billowing from the building.

Members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, said that they engaged "in fierce clashes" with the Israeli army during the raid, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli soldiers also attacked Palestinians in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, reportedly with live bullets and tear gas bombs.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was treating three residents with injuries to bullet wounds.

The Israeli army on Wednesday arrested scores of Palestinians in the occupied territory amid its continued raids.

Nablus, the neighbouring Dsheisha camp, Qalqilya and Ramallah have all been targeted by Israeli forces.

The Palestinians Prisoners Society confirmed to Wafa that at least 26 people Palestinians were detained on Wednesday with residents assaulted by by soldiers when their homes were raided, Anadolu added.

The raids come as the Palestinian death toll from Tuesday’s Israeli assaults in the West Bank increased to 14, while a Palestinian man succumbed to his wounds following injuries inflicted the day earlier.

Mohammed Abu Hijab died as a result of his wounds sustained by Israeli live bullets amid the army's incursion in Jenin on Tuesday, where six people were killed.

Others were killed in Tubas and Kafr Qud in separate assaults, the Ramallah-based health ministry said.

Israeli forces have killed at least 620 Palestinians in the West Bank since the assault on Gaza began on 7 October.

Israel stepped up its raids in the West Bank since the start of its onslaught in the coastal enclave, subjecting Palestinians across both territories to war, violence, and human rights abuses over the past 10 months.

Israel had already intensified its raids on the West Bank before the war in Gaza broke out, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's return to power in December 2022, as head of Israel's most right-wing government in over 70 years.

At least 5,400 have also been wounded since 7 October, while at least 10,000 Palestinians have been arrested as of Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.