Dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, with the Red Crescent reporting at least seven people wounded in the raid.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military confirmed that its forces were conducting an operation in the northern West Bank city, without specifying its purpose.
The raid began at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), residents said, with soldiers in armored vehicles storming several neighborhoods of Nablus's old city, which has a population of around 30,000 people.
It came a day after Israeli forces carried out a relatively rare raid on Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, targeting a currency exchange in the city center and leaving dozens of Palestinians wounded, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told AFP that Wednesday's "assault... is merely a show of force with no justification".
One witness, who declined to give his name, reported that soldiers had expelled an elderly couple from their home.
Israeli troops "are storming and searching houses and shops inside the old city, while some houses have been turned into military posts", said Ghassan Hamdan, head of the Palestinian Medical Relief organization in Nablus.
AFP footage showed Israeli forces and military vehicles deployed on the streets, with some troops taking position on a rooftop.
Daghlas said the army had informed Palestinian authorities that the raid would last until 4:00 pm.
Local sources said clashes broke out at the eastern entrance to the old city, where young people threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live ammunition.
The Red Crescent said its teams treated five people wounded by rubber bullets, one person hit by live bullet shrapnel and another following "physical assault".
One more person was injured in a "fall" during the raid, the medical organization added, and at least 27 others suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa, slammed "the Israeli escalation in cities and refugee camps", calling a recent uptick in raids "dangerous, condemned and unacceptable".
The old city of Nablus has been the focus of several major Israeli raids, including in 2022 and 2023 during large-scale operations targeting a local grouping of armed fighters, as well as in 2002 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
In early June 2025, an Israeli military operation there resulted in two Palestinians killed.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, violence has surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 972 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, since the beginning of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority figures.
In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in attacks or during military operations in the territory, according to Israeli figures.
