Israeli forces seize homes, impose curfew in West Bank Qabatiya | News from the occupied West Bank
The incursion follows an order from the Israeli defense minister calling on the army to “act forcefully” against the Palestinian town.
Published on December 27, 2025
Israeli forces carried out mass arrests and forced dozens of families from their homes in the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya on the second day of a massive military operation ordered by Israel’s defense minister.
Israeli forces sealed off the entrances to Qabatiya while rounding up and interrogating dozens of residents on Saturday, local sources told Al Jazeera. They transformed several houses into military interrogation centers, displacing their occupants, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
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Israeli Army Radio reported that the city is under a “full curfew.”
The crackdown followed an order from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to “act forcefully… against the village of Qabatiya,” where he said a Palestinian accused of carrying out a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel came from.
In a statement released Friday, the Israeli army said it had deployed troops from several divisions, as well as members of the border police and Shin Bet security services, to Qabatiya. He said forces had raided the attack suspect’s house and were preparing to demolish it.
Rights groups have long condemned the Israeli practice of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis, describing it as an illegal form of collective punishment.
The Israeli army said its forces would “scan other areas of the village” and “work to arrest the wanted individuals and locate the weapons.”
“There is a feeling of fear among the city’s residents,” one resident told Al Jazeera. “There are Israeli threats and incitements. »
Saturday’s Israeli military raids also extended elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, including several villages surrounding Ramallah and Hebron, Wafa reported. Israeli forces attacked and arrested eight people in the towns of Dura, Abda and Imreish, near Hebron, according to the news agency.
Israeli military incursions and attacks across the occupied West Bank have been an almost daily occurrence during Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have arrested nearly 21,000 Palestinians. As of December 1, some 9,300 Palestinian prisoners were in Israeli jails, more than a third of whom were held without charge.
Palestinian prisoners have been tortured, sexually abused and even killed in custody.
