The Israeli Army carried out an operation this Friday at the Specialized Hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus, following the serious events recorded during the past night in the town of Tell, where a violent assault by settlers resulted in the death of at least four Palestinians and two Israelis.
The vice president of the board of directors of the Specialized Hospital of Nablus, Dani Al Masri, has indicated to the news agency WAFA that Israeli forces have surrounded the healthcare center, have burst into the emergency area, and have assaulted part of the medical staff, even going so far as to handcuff doctors and nurses.
According to this information, Israeli soldiers would have detained two people and would have seized the recordings from the security cameras, in addition to trying to detonate the doors of the hospital's administrative office, although for now the Army has not provided an official version of what happened.
The organization Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) has condemned the entry of Israeli forces into the hospital through a message published on social media, and has denounced that in recent hours the violence of the settlers has increased "with the backing and protection of the Army."
"Paramedics on the ground describe the towns around Nablus as cut off. Access doors have been sealed with road barriers, blocking ambulances from entering or reaching patients. At least four cases, including patients with fractures and other injuries, are currently waiting for evacuation with no way to leave," the NGO has pointed out, warning of the difficulties in attending to the injured.
Escalation of settler attacks in the West Bank
Naaman Abdulá, mayor of the town of Sarra, south of Nablus, reported this Friday that dozens of settlers have burst into the city, have assaulted three residents, and have set fire to six homes, either totally or partially, in addition to burning a total of five vehicles.
In parallel, another group of settlers has attempted to burn several houses in the town of Aurif, also south of Nablus, leaving one person injured, while in the town of Al Jader, south of Bethlehem, the burning of cars owned by Palestinians has also been reported.
The wave of attacks by settlers has also caused five injuries in Farata, east of Qalqilya: four of them from gunfire and a fifth from the impact of a stone to the head, after a group charged against the eastern area of the village armed with stones, sticks, and firearms. Similar incidents have been recorded in Jirbet Imreiha, in the Jenin district, in northern West Bank, where settlers have sprayed several neighbors with pepper spray.
In this context of growing violence, Israeli forces have intensified their military operations north of Ramallah and Biré, after the Chief of Staff of the Army, Eyal Zamir, committed to stopping "all the terrorists" involved in the attack against the Palestinian locality of Tell.
"This morning we have deployed numerous additional forces to reinforce the defense and offensive operations against the terrorist infrastructure in the area," Zamir explained in a statement released on social media, in which he justifies the military reinforcement in the region.