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Biddu: Israeli forces on Monday raided the hometown of a Palestinian man suspected of shooting dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank the day before, local authorities said.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s shooting occurred near the Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf, north of Ramallah, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, with the suspected assailant apprehended by soldiers after being located at a hospital.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military told AFP on Sunday that its troops had raided the home of the attacker\u2019s family in the Palestinian village of Biddu, northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
The Jerusalem Governorate, the Palestinian local authority for the area, said Israeli forces then raided Biddu at dawn on Monday and \u201ccarried out a large-scale arrest campaign targeting dozens of young men\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe raid was accompanied by searches, vandalism, and the smashing of property inside a number of homes, as well as physical assaults on several residents,\u201d it said, adding that the raid was ongoing.<\/p>\n
When asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it was checking the reports.<\/p>\n
An AFP photographer saw Israeli forces in the town on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Biddu\u2019s mayor, Nazmi Mansour, told AFP that the military had stormed the town after midnight with \u201cdozens of military jeeps and hundreds of soldiers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soldiers began house-to-house searches and set up field interrogation centres in buildings they had taken control of,\u201d he said, adding that dozens of people were questioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe army is still present in the town and has closed off its entrances, and all commercial shops are shut,\u201d he told AFP by telephone.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said at the site of the attack Sunday that the military remained \u201con high alert\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will impose a closure on the village and conduct investigations, through which we will reach everyone who assisted the terrorist,\u201d Zamir said.<\/p>\n
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for the attacker to be the first person executed under a recently approved death penalty law.<\/p>\n
The new law imposes the death penalty by default on Palestinians from the West Bank convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks.<\/p>\n
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence there has surged since October 2023. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n