Citing local and medical sources, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported that Israeli troops stormed the city early on Thursday, triggering confrontations with Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that Khalil Yehya Anis was shot by Israeli forces during the clashes, adding that two others were shot in the limbs and were taken to a hospital in Nablus, one in critical condition.

The occupation forces also raided the Rafidia neighborhood of Nablus, surrounding a four-storey Palestinian-owned house and evicting its residents before demolishing it.

Hours later, the regime’s troops demolished the 150-square-meter home of Usama Tawil, who was arrested on February 13 for allegedly killing an Israeli soldier in the city, displacing his parents and sister.

Israeli forces also fired tear gas canisters at Palestinians who gathered to protest the demolition.

According to PRCS, 170 people were treated at the scene after inhaling tear gas fired by the regime’s forces during the raid.

It also noted that one of its ambulances was hit by a tear gas canister and another was shot at by Israeli troops to prevent it from reaching the area to evacuate the wounded.

Over the past months, Israel has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

Most of the raids have targeted the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where the regime’s forces have been trying to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance against the occupation.

One of the goals of Israel’s raids on various locations across the West Bank has been to raze the structures that belong to the Palestinians, whom the regime accuses of killing Israeli settlers.

As a result of these attacks, over 160 Palestinians, including 28 children, have lost their lives and many others have been arrested in 2023.

The new report concluded that Israel conducted “apparently disproportionate” strikes against men, women and children in Gaza over a five-day period in May, killing 33 Palestinians, including six children.

One Israeli was also killed during the fighting.

During the attacks, the Israeli military damaged 2,943 housing units, including 103 homes which were completely destroyed. More than 1,244 Palestinians have also been displaced.

“Since the root cause of these recurrent unlawful attacks against civilians is Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians, therefore Amnesty International is renewing its call on the ICC to consider the applicability of the crime against humanity of apartheid within its current formal investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine,” said the report.

The fighting on 9 May began when the Israeli military killed 15 Palestinians, including three Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders along with their wives and children, in air strikes.

“Those who planned and authorised the attacks anticipated – and likely disregarded – the disproportionate harm to civilians,” noted Amnesty, adding that “intentionally launching disproportionate attacks… is a war crime”.

The PIJ responded to the Israeli attack by firing rockets into Israel.

Amnesty International went on to say that indiscriminate rocket fire by the PIJ killed both Israeli and Palestinian civilians and should also be subject to investigation.

PIJ rockets are “inherently inaccurate and their use against areas populated with civilians is indiscriminate, violates international humanitarian law and should be investigated as possible war crimes”, the report added.

The most significant portions of the report, however, were reserved for Israel.

“Israel’s impunity for the war crimes it repeatedly commits against Palestinians, and for its cruel ongoing 16-year illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, emboldens further violations and makes injustice chronic,” said Heba Morayef, the Middle East and North Africa regional director at Amnesty International.

“That we have been documenting the same patterns of unlawful killings and destruction over and over again is an indictment of the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable,” Morayef added.

Speaking to AFP, the Israeli army responded to the report, saying that it “carried out attacks only after a real-time assessment before the attack that the expected collateral damage to civilians and civilian property will not be excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated”.

Amnesty International has rejected such claims, citing a “pattern of extensive destruction of property” as a result of Israeli strikes that “failed to meet the exceptions under which attacking homes and other civilian objects would be justified”.

During its investigation, Amnesty documented at least three cases of “neighbourhood-wide property destruction”.

In one recorded incident on 13 May, Israel targeted a three-storey building in the neighbourhood of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.

The building, home to 22 civilians, including 12 children, was completely destroyed and several other homes in the area were severely damaged. The bombing resulted in the internal displacement of at least 41 civilians.

Amnesty announced that it found no evidence that there was a military objective in destroying the buildings or that any members of the family had any military involvement.

“In our investigation, we heard vivid accounts of bombs obliterating homes, of fathers digging their little girls out from under rubble, of a teenager fatally injured as she lay in bed holding a teddy bear. More frightening than any of this is the near certainty that, unless perpetrators are held to account, these horrifying scenes will be repeated,” statedd Morayef.

A spokesperson for PIJ said the group “welcomes” the report.

“We are doing our part to defend ourselves against the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” it added in a statement.