By Middle East Correspondent
LONDON, (The Muslim News): Israeli forces and settlers escalated operations across the occupied West Bank on Monday, as Israeli attacks and threats continued in Gaza and strikes and shelling intensified across southern Lebanon, underscoring the widening scope of Israel’s military actions across the region.
In the West Bank, illegal Israeli settlers established a new illegal settlement outpost on Palestinian-owned land near Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, while Israeli bulldozers began constructing another settlement road near homes in Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah.
Local sources told Anadolu Agency that Israeli settlers also entered the outskirts of Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, where Palestinian youths confronted them, sparking clashes. No injuries were immediately reported.
Videos circulated on social media appeared to show the expansion of a settlement outpost and the construction of a road on Palestinian land north of Burqa village, east of Ramallah.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli army forces raided Al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, while settlers gathered along the Marj Sia road linking Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah.
Israeli military raids and movement restrictions were also reported elsewhere across the occupied territory.
In Ramallah province, Israeli forces raided Shuqba town and fired tear gas. Soldiers established checkpoints at the entrances to villages including Shabtin and Nabi Saleh, searching vehicles and causing significant traffic congestion.
Witnesses said long queues formed at the Nabi Saleh and Atara checkpoints north of Ramallah.
In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces established a checkpoint at the entrance to Jaba town, northeast of the city, and searched vehicles. The army also raided Sair town, northeast of Hebron, while settlers conducted what local sources described as provocative tours in Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley.
Hospital raided in Bethlehem
Later on Monday, Israeli forces raided the grounds of the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation hospital and assaulted patients and visitors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“Israeli forces stormed the grounds of the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation hospital, terrified patients and visitors, and assaulted some of them,” the ministry said.
It condemned the raid and what it described as continuing Israeli violations against hospitals and medical centres, stressing that health facilities and medical personnel are protected under international law.
The ministry said attacks on hospitals, or actions that endanger patients and medical workers, constitute serious violations of international law and threaten the provision of healthcare.
It called on international health and humanitarian organisations, including the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to intervene and press for protections for medical facilities, patients and staff.
The escalation comes amid sustained Israeli military operations and settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, alongside continued expansion of illegal settlement outposts and roads and increasingly restrictive controls on Palestinian movement.
Netanyahu backs continued Gaza killings
The escalation in the West Bank coincided with a dispute over Israel’s continuing military operations in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday that Israel would continue targeted killings in Gaza, while Kushner opposed the policy, according to Israel’s Channel 15.
“There was no agreement between Netanyahu and Kushner on the continuation of the assassination operations,” the channel reported, citing an informed source.
According to the report, Netanyahu made clear that he intended to continue the killings, while Kushner expressed his opposition.
Netanyahu met Kushner and Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, in Israel on Monday.
Kushner had arrived from Egypt, where he met President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Hamas officials led by the group’s political bureau chief, Khalil al-Hayya.
The meeting came as negotiations remain deadlocked over the sequencing of a ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu is demanding that Hamas fully disarm before Israel begins withdrawing its forces from Gaza. Hamas has said it is prepared to surrender its weapons only as part of a phased and orderly Israeli withdrawal.
Netanyahu has previously rejected the 15-point Gaza plan and insisted on the prior disarmament of Hamas, despite a roadmap issued by the Board of Peace on July 31 calling for Hamas’ disarmament and an Israeli withdrawal to proceed gradually and in parallel.
Mediators continue to seek progress on implementation of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on October 10, 2025.
According to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli violations of the agreement have killed 1,262 Palestinians and wounded 4,168 others.
Israel’s war on Gaza, which began on October 8, 2023, has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 174,000, according to Palestinian authorities, with women and children making up the majority of the casualties. About 90 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed.
Ben-Gvir calls for nightly Gaza killings
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has separately called for Israel to intensify its attacks on Gaza, saying the army should kill “30 to 40” Palestinians each night.
Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, made the remarks in an interview on the “October 8” podcast hosted by former Israeli prisoner Rom Braslavski. The Jerusalem Post published excerpts from the interview on Monday.
Ben-Gvir called for Israel to conduct airstrikes across the entire Gaza Strip rather than restricting attacks to people deemed to pose an immediate threat.
He also rejected the distinction between combatants and Palestinians not directly involved in the fighting, making statements questioning their right to live.
Discussing a Palestinian woman who had provided food to Braslavski while he was held captive in Gaza, Ben-Gvir labelled her a “terrorist” and said she “needs a bullet in the head”.
Braslavski, an Israeli soldier captured on October 7, 2023, was released in a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel on October 13, 2025.
Ben-Gvir also renewed his call for Israel to re-establish settlements throughout Gaza, saying: “I see all of Gaza as ours.”
He said any future Israeli settlement project should extend beyond the former Gush Katif bloc, which Israel evacuated in 2005, to cover the entire enclave.
He also called for the largest possible number of Palestinians to leave Gaza, describing their departure as “emigration”.
Ben-Gvir said Palestinians held in Israeli prisons “suffer greatly” and said he was pleased by their conditions. He further called for Israeli rights organisations that advocate coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, including Peace Now and Standing, Together, to be outlawed, accusing them of supporting terrorism.
Palestinian and Israeli rights groups estimate that about 9,500 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli attacks continue across southern Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out fresh airstrikes, artillery attacks and machine-gun fire across at least four areas of southern Lebanon on Monday, in further violations of the ceasefire framework between Israel and Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes struck at least one position in the Wadi al-Hujair valley after midnight near Al-Qantara in Nabatieh province.
Israeli military vehicles were also reported moving through nearby areas, accompanied by sporadic machine-gun fire.
No casualties or material damage were immediately reported from the airstrike.
In the Marjayoun district, Israeli military vehicles moved east of Khiam, while Israeli forces fired medium and heavy machine guns towards the town and surrounding areas.
Israeli gunfire was also reported in several nearby towns and villages, while forces positioned in the Bint Jbeil district fired towards Haddatha.
An Israeli drone dropped explosive ordnance on the Al-Dabsha area east of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while Israeli artillery shelled Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.
Israeli warplanes also struck Mansouri, while an Israeli drone crashed near Zibqin. The cause of the crash and whether it caused damage were not immediately known.
Later, Israeli forces carried out a large explosion in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, hours after the town had been shelled by Israeli artillery.
Israeli drones also dropped incendiary bombs over fields around Kfar Rumman, triggering fires that spread into what remained of the Kfar Rumman Martyrs Nature Reserve.
The latest attacks came a day after Israel’s Channel 12, citing unnamed military sources, reported that the Israeli army was preparing for the possibility of several more days of fighting in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon signed a US-backed framework agreement on June 26, under which Israeli forces are to withdraw gradually from occupied Lebanese territory and Lebanese army units are to deploy into areas vacated by Israel.
The agreement also calls for the disarmament of armed groups, including Hezbollah.
Israeli forces, however, remain deployed in several parts of southern Lebanon, including areas that Israel has occupied for decades and others seized during fighting in 2023 and 2024.
Israel’s ongoing operations in Lebanon have killed 4,335 people and wounded 12,277 since March 2, according to Lebanese figures.
[Photo: A view of the damage and rubble after Israeli forces demolished a two-story Palestinian-owned residential building in Qalandiya town, northwest of East Jerusalem, on August 17, 2026. The demolition left at least 15 Palestinians homeless. Photojournalist: Issam Rimawi/AA]
