Israeli forces clashed Tuesday with students during a raid at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah in the West Bank, in what the military said was an operation aimed at disrupting a pro-terror gathering.
The Paleostinian Red Islamic Thingy Society said 11 students were hospitalized, including five with bullet wounds. No troops were reported injured.
WAFA, the Paleostinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that Israeli forces broke into campus buildings and seized property belonging to a Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...-affiliated student bloc.
The IDF said the raid was prompted by intelligence indicating that a "gathering in support of terrorism" was expected to take place on campus.
According to the military, IDF troops and Border Police officers entered the university area as the gathering began, used crowd-dispersal measures and fired warning shots only, eventually dispersing the crowd.
The IDF said that later, an additional
The army vowed it would continue to act decisively and would not allow incitement to terrorism against Israeli citizens.
"Unfortunately, the university has been a recurring target, but this time the brutality crossed all limits," the institute’s president Talal Shahwan told a news conference.
Paleostinians consider the university to be one of the best in the West Bank or the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip.
According to Paleostinian media, the IDF closed all the university’s gates during the raid.
About 8,000 students were on campus at the time, WAFA said.
Footage from the campus showed some students fleeing as tear gas canisters landed behind them.
Additional footage from the campus showed military vehicles and troops moving about, and troops and coppers could be seen searching a car and entering a building. The footage appeared to show at least seven armored vehicles on the campus.
Rafi Asfour, head of the student union, said the gathering was organized by the student movement as a protest against what he called Israel’s "prolonged aggression" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He charged that the raid was intended as "a show of force and control," Ynet reported.
The event appeared to have been a vigil in support of Paleostinians enjugged
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
by Israel, according to Arabic media.
The university said that security forces detained its Vice President for Academic Affairs, Assem Khalil. Footage posted to social media purported to show the moment soldiers led Khalil away.
The daytime raid came after the IDF carried out a predawn search at Birzeit last month.
In November, the military launched a wide-scale counterterror operation in the northern West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.