Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas has sent letters to several world leaders, calling for urgent international action to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
He wrote to several world leaders including the European Union, the Arab League, and President of the United Nations Security Council.
Abbas also demanded that those responsible for attacks be held accountable, a halt to all settlement activity, and international protection for the Palestinian people.
He asserted that the situation has spiraled far beyond isolated incidents of violence, describing it as “a systematic Israeli policy aimed at creating new realities on the ground.”
This comes as an Israeli crackdown in occupied West Bank intensifies. Israeli soldiers stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours and detained about 40 Palestinians, including a woman and former prisoners.
In a furious reaction to a shootout in a village near Nablus in which four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed, the Israeli military has launched an aggressive crackdown in the occupied West Bank, storming several towns and villages and detaining hundreds of Palestinians, amid escalating attacks by Jewish settlers.
The firefight that triggered the punitive and oppressive military response took place on Friday in Tal, southwest of Nablus.
The “wide-scale military operation” across the West Bank ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the deaths of the soldiers intensified today, and settlers became bolder and more violent, marauding through villages, scrawling graffiti on buildings and attacking Palestinians.
Settlers tried to set two mosques ablaze. Abdel Azim Wadi, Head of the village council in Qusra, said that at one of those, the newly built Al-Rahma Mosque in the town of Qusra southeast of Nablus, settlers spray-painted slogans like “Jewish revenge” on the walls.
The other mosque targeted in the arson attack was in the village of Kour, south of Tulkarem. Farid Jiyousi, a member of the village council, said that three settlers tried to set the mosque ablaze at dawn, but worshippers put out the fire before it could reach the main area of the premises.
The Palestinian news agency reported that 30 people were arrested in the village of Tal, where the confrontation that led to the crackdown took place, as well as 14 in Ramallah, five in Jenin, eight in Hebron, three in Bethlehem and six in Tulkarem.
It also reported that Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid across the city of Jenin and several towns and villages in the governorate of Jenin, including Zababdeh, Faqqua, Yabad, Burqin, Jalbun, Qabatiya, Jalqamus, Silat al-Harithiya, al-Yamoun, Kafr Dan, Deir Abu Daif and Zububa.
Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya, a Spokesperson for the Israeli army, said today that Israeli forces were raiding houses in Tal belonging to villagers suspected of involvement in Friday’s violence. She said the homes “were raided in preparation for their temporary sealing, as a preliminary step preceding their demolition.”
Israel has a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out lethal attacks, a practice rights groups condemn as collective punishment that violates international law.
Israel Poised For Broad Attacks
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel “prepared to act more broadly” in West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the threat during ongoing attacks by settlers and raids by the military in the occupied Palestinian territory. “The instructions we gave were to enter villages, search them, seize weapons and make arrests,” Netanyahu told reporters. He also said that Israel is “prepared to act more broadly against terrorist strongholds.”
Settler attacks on Palestinians surge 63% in first half of 2026. The steep increase has been recorded during the first six months of 2026, compared with the second half of 2025, Israeli Army Radio reported, citing security data.
It said that in the first half of this year, 660 incidents were recorded as opposed to 405 in the second half of 2025. “During the weekend, an unusual number of 30 nationalist crime incidents were recorded in the territories,” it added.
Since October 2023, at least 1,185 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including 250 children. At least 87 Palestinians have been killed so far in the territory in 2026, including 21 killed by settlers.
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