Palestinian stronghold is stormed by Israeli troops in mass overnight raids

One woman stands in the wreckage of her home in Nablus

Nineteen Palestinians were hospitalized in the northern West Bank city of Nablus after Israeli troops stormed the city overnight.

In widespread raids, Palestinians were arrested in a number of other locations including Ramallah, Hebron, and Bethlehem.

Locals said military vehicles along with special forces raided Nablus's Ras al-Ayn, Khallat al-Eiman and Khallat al-Amoud neighborhoods at 2am on Saturday and detained five young men.

The invading forces destroyed the interior of houses and attacked activists.

Undercover Israeli forces entered the Ras al-Ayn neighborhood in a white bus before they broke into a home and detained activist Sami Hannoun and his brother Shadi, locals said.

Red Crescent officials told Ma’an that 19 people were taken to public hospitals after they inhaled tear gas which the soldiers fired heavily. They said the tear gas was fired at ambulances while they evacuated people.

Two young men were also hit by a stun grenade. They were identified as Jihad Ghalaby and Wael Sbayyan.

Israel retains an illegal occupation in the West Bank, crushing the local economy and regularly attacking anti-Israeli protests.

Elsewhere on Saturday Hamas accused Palestinian security services of arresting ten of its supporters in the West Bank.

In a statement on Saturday morning, the Islamist group said that arrests had taken place in a number of cities.

The statement said that 'preventative security' re-arrested Sheikh Dinar Hamadna one day after his release from 33 days solitary confinement by the Magistrate's Court.

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