Mayor Rafat Khalifeh, the head of the municipal council in the occupied West Bank village of Kafr Nime near Ramallah, has told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces detained more than 30 young men, some as young as 15, yesterday in a village park “for whatever reason that is not clear”.
The high school students are expected to sit their exams in two days, he says, fearing that the development will affect the educational prospects of the village youngsters.
“People are intimidated very much,” he said, adding that the village has “suffered a lot” since the outbreak of the Gaza offensive as Israeli raids have become more frequent.
He also said that the Israelis created illegal settlements near his village and the settlers were intimidating the Kafr Nime residents.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees has warned that a breakdown of civil order in Gaza had allowed widespread looting and smuggling and blocked aid delivery, AFP reports.
Since the conflict erupted in the Gaza Strip more than eight months ago, the Palestinian territory “has been decimated”, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the agency’s advisory body, warning that “the breakdown of civil order has resulted in rampant looting and smuggling that impede the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid”.
Some 37,626 Palestinians have been killed and 86,098 have been injured during Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s health ministry has said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The toll includes at least 28 deaths over the past 24 hours, the statement added.
An Israeli campaign group led by relatives of hostages held in Gaza has said that an end to the Israel-Hamas offensive without bringing the captives home would be a “national failure”, AFP reports.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum responded to remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a TV interview on Sunday, in which he said the “intense phase” of the fighting in the Gaza Strip was winding down, though the offensive as such was not nearing its end.
