Israeli forces demolish memorial at Birzeit University, arrest 10 Palestinians in West Bank raids

Israeli forces demolished a memorial inside Birzeit University, north of Ramallah in the central West Bank early Monday, and arrested 10 Palestinians in separate raids across the occupied territory, according to local sources and official media.

An Israeli force stormed the university campus accompanied by a military bulldozer and demolished the memorial, which bears the names of Birzeit University students killed in Israeli attacks over the years, local sources said.

The forces also detained a university security guard, raided several facilities and deployed around the campus during the raid, the sources said.

Birzeit University posted a photo on US social media platform Facebook showing the site where the memorial had stood.

On Sept. 26, Palestinian reports said Israeli forces had raided the campus and photographed the memorial before withdrawing.

Birzeit University has 13,400 students across nine faculties and 174 academic programs, according to figures for the 2025-2026 academic year. It has repeatedly been subjected to Israeli raids, some of which have resulted in arrests and injuries.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians, including three children and two women, in raids across several areas of the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

In Ramallah, Israeli forces detained two people after raiding and searching their homes in the Al-Masayef neighborhood, Wafa said, citing local sources.

In Bethlehem province, Israeli forces arrested one Palestinian in Beit Ta’mar village east of Bethlehem. Another was arrested in a raid on his home south of the city.

Two more Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces in Tammun, according to Kamal Bani Odeh, director of the Palestinian Prisoner Society office in Tubas. A mother of four was also detained in what Bani Odeh said was “an attempt to pressure her husband to turn himself in.”

In the Nablus area, Israeli forces arrested three children during raids on Deir Sharaf and Qusin villages west of the city.

Around 9,350 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, including 90 women and 350 children, according to Palestinian organizations that monitor prisoner affairs.

Since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli army and occupiers have intensified attacks in the West Bank, involving killings, arrests, displacement, home demolitions, land leveling and illegal settlement expansion.