Israeli Forces Raid Homes in Sida, Occupy Some as Military Bases

Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Saida, north of Tulkarm in the occupied northern West Bank, on Sunday, raiding multiple Palestinian homes and converting several of them into temporary military outposts, according to local sources cited by Quds News Network. The incursion is part of a sustained military escalation across the northern West Bank that has displaced thousands of families and devastated civilian infrastructure since the start of the year.

Witnesses reported that Israeli infantry units backed by armored vehicles entered Saida from multiple directions in the pre-dawn hours, sealing entrances to the town and conducting house-to-house searches. Soldiers forced families out of their homes at gunpoint, confining residents to ground-floor rooms while troops took up sniper positions on rooftops and upper floors. Several properties were declared closed military zones and are being used as forward bases for ongoing operations in the surrounding area.

Saida lies within a corridor that has been under near-continuous Israeli military pressure since January, when occupation forces launched the wide-scale Iron Wall operation across Tulkarm, Jenin, Tubas and their refugee camps. The campaign has involved bulldozing of streets, demolition of homes, the imposition of curfews, and the forced displacement of more than 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps in the northern West Bank, according to United Nations estimates. Humanitarian organizations have described the scale of destruction as unprecedented since the Second Intifada.

Local officials in Saida said the seizure of family homes for use as military barracks is a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from compelling protected persons to host its forces or from appropriating private property except where absolutely necessary for military operations. Palestinian human rights groups have documented dozens of similar conversions of civilian homes into military posts across the West Bank in recent months.

Qatar has repeatedly condemned Israeli operations in the West Bank as collective punishment and a deliberate effort to entrench the occupation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha has called on the international community to enforce existing rulings of the International Court of Justice declaring the occupation unlawful, and has urged accelerated steps toward recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders. Gulf Cooperation Council statements have similarly warned that unchecked settler and military expansion in the West Bank threatens the prospects for a viable Palestinian state.

The latest raid in Saida comes amid a sharp rise in settler attacks on Palestinian villages and an expansion of Israeli checkpoints across the territory, deepening fears among residents of a coordinated push to fragment Palestinian communities and consolidate Israeli control over wide stretches of the northern West Bank.