Israeli forces detain 15 Palestinians as siege on Beit Surik continues

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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained at least 15 Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank and continued to blockade the hometown of a Palestinian who was shot dead Tuesday morning after carrying out a deadly attack in a nearby illegal Israeli settlement.

Nimr Jamal, 37, from the central occupied West Bank village of Beit Surik north of Jerusalem, carried out a shooting attack outside of the adjacent illegal Har Adar settlement, leaving an Israeli border police officer and two Israeli security guards killed.

Shortly after the attack, the Israeli army placed Beit Surik under a military lockdown and imposed a village-wide curfew.

Wednesday morning, an Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the closure remained in place, saying all crossings and passages from the area around Beit Surik and the adjacent village of Biddu were closed, and that Palestinians would only be allowed passage for "humanitarian reasons" and after undergoing security checks.

Israeli authorities routinely seal entire villages following Palestinian attacks on Israelis, which rights groups have condemned as a form of "collective punishment." Israeli authorities also advance other punitive measures following attacks, including demolishing the family home of alleged or actual attackers, detaining family members, and withholding the remains of slain Palestinians from relatives.

Locals confirmed that Israeli soldiers took measurements of Jamal's family's house in preparation to punitively demolish it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday the home would be destroyed, and that the Israeli work permits of Jamal's extended family would also be revoked.

Separately, Israeli forces also raided Jenin refugee camp and the town of Yaabad in the northern Jenin district of the West Bank overnight and took pictures of several houses for unknown reasons.

Locals said that Israeli forces raided Yaabad's al-Malul neighborhood and took pictures of Ahmad Ghaleb Abu Bakr, a local who was released from Israeli prison two days ago. Soldiers also took photos of the houses of his relatives Ghazi and Munir Khalid Abu Bakr.

Israeli forces also interrogated several youths in the town during the raid -- one of them was identified as Abed al-Karim Abu Bakr.

The Israeli army reported in a statement that it confiscated thousands of shekels from the Jenin refugee camp and at a crossroads near the town of Qalqiliya. Israeli forces also confiscated vehicles from inside an auto-part shop belonging to Muhammad Naim Abu Rajab, according to locals.

Meanwhile, in the town of Dura west of Hebron city in the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian youth identified as Yousef Fares Abu Arqoub, local sources said.

Israeli forces also raided a house belonging to Abed al-Latif Abu Isnineh in Dura and turned into a military outpost, with Israeli soldiers informing the owner that soldiers would be deployed on the rooftop of the house for several days.

In al-Duheisha refugee camp in the southern Bethlehem district, undercover Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian resident during a predawn detention raid that erupted into clashes

Israeli forces could not find the Palestinian wanted for detention, but detained his father and cousin instead, according to locals.

Israeli forces also raided a bookstore inside the camp and sealed it off that was previously shut down the by the army.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an they would looks into reports of raids in Jenin, Dura, and al-Duheisha, and said that a total of 15 Palestinians were detained overnight, without providing details on the locations of the detentions.

Israeli forces detained 522 Palestinians, including 130 minors and 16 women, over the course of the month of August, according to a joint report released Palestinian institutions focusing on prisoners' rights.

The total number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons reached 6,300 prisoners, the report said, 64 of them women. Among them are 10 girls under the age of 18 and 300 underage boys, 450 administrative detainees imprisoned without charge or trial, and 12 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian parliament.