RAMALLAH, Aug. 4– Israeli forces raided the home of Palestinian minister Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, head of the Commission Against the Wall and Settlements in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in Tulkarm on Tuesday, while Israeli settlers burned three vehicles in villages near Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to Palestinian sources.
Sha’ban told reporters that Israeli forces stormed his house in the Danaba suburb east of Tulkarm, interrogated him, and threatened him over his anti-settlement stance.
He said that the forces conducted a thorough search of the house, ransacking the property and causing damage before detaining him and his family members in separate rooms.
The commission condemned the raid in a statement, calling it an “attack targeting national leaders and official Palestinian institutions,” and describing it as “a clear pattern of intimidation and pressure” over Sha’ban’s role in confronting Israel’s land confiscation and displacement policies.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side.
Separately, Palestinian sources reported that settlers burned three vehicles and attacked Palestinian homes between the villages of Jalud and Talfit, and damaged part of the electricity grid in the village of Madma, south of Nablus.
Bashar al-Qaryouti, an activist in the movement against Israeli settlement, told Xinhua that settlers set fire to three vehicles, destroyed them, and attempted to torch a building, but were stopped by residents.
Al-Qaryouti added that another group of settlers destroyed the electricity grid in Madma.
The PLO’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported on Monday that the Israeli army and settlers carried out 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank during July. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
