Israeli occupation forces detained at least 30 Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank on 19 August, as illegal settlers, under military protection, continued their siege of Qusra for an 11th day straight.
The sweep fell heaviest on Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, and Bethlehem, where soldiers ransacked properties and interrogated residents before abducting them, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said, with eight seized south of Hebron, six near Qalqilya, and four in Nablus, including two brothers, according to WAFA.
In Nablus, soldiers beat a 28-year-old man, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries, WAFA reported, adding that troops also detained residents in Qalandiya Refugee Camp and set up military checkpoints during the raid.
Among those abducted by Israeli forces was Palestinian journalist Abdul Rahman Hassan from Bethlehem.
The PPS said his arrest is part of a sustained campaign against Palestinian journalists that runs parallel to Israeli attacks on reporters in Gaza, calling it an attempt to “erase the truth and target the Palestinian narrative.”
The renewed escalation occurs as Israeli settlers, backed by occupation forces, enter an 11th day of siege on the village of Qusra, where homes have been surrounded, the municipal water supply cut, and residents left facing severe food shortages, WAFA reported.
Around 13 Palestinians from three families have been trapped in the Ras al-Ain area since 9 August, with the army declaring the surrounding land a closed military zone and seizing one of the three homes for use as a barracks, Qusra Mayor Abdul Azim al-Wadi told Anadolu Agency.
Palestinian authorities have warned the siege could be used to drive the families out and hand their homes and land to settlers.
The PPS said the parallel escalation in detentions and settler attacks forms a single system aimed at tightening control over Palestinians and forcing communities to live under constant threat, violence, and intimidation.
Israel is currently holding roughly 9,400 Palestinian prisoners, among them 94 women, more than 350 children, 3,244 administrative detainees, and 1,320 people classified by Israel as “unlawful combatants,” according to Palestinian figures.
Rights organizations have long documented torture, sexual violence, rape, starvation, and the denial of medical care inside Israeli prisons. These brutal conditions have killed dozens of detainees and have worsened sharply after the 7 October Hamas operation and the genocide Israel launched in Gaza.
In parallel, Tel Aviv is holding the remains of roughly 1,700 Palestinians as leverage for future negotiations even though the resistance holds no Israeli captives, Haaretz reported on 11 August, with Shin Bet chief David Zini insisting the bodies be kept as bargaining chips should Israel take captives again.
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