Israeli forces raided and closed Palestinian stores across the village of Huwwara in southern Nablus on Wednesday after locals reportedly threw stones and Molotov cocktails at settlers' cars travelling through the village. Awwad Nijm, a local Fatah spokesperson, said that Israeli soldiers raided dozens of stores in the village, seizing their surveillance cameras, before ordering their closure. Locals told Ma'an that Israeli forces had imposed a curfew on the village. They said that two Molotov cocktails had been thrown at settlers' vehicles in the village, which lies along Route 60, a central artery of the northern West Bank that connects a number of illegal Israeli settlements with Jerusalem. An Israeli army spokesperson said that she was looking into the reports. Due to its sensitive location, Huwwara's residents frequently clash with both Israeli soldiers and settlers, and Israel's army has sealed two major checkpoints to the village's south and north on a number of occasions since a wave of unrest swept the occupied Palestinian territory last month. On Oct. 11 alone, Israeli forces shot some 53 Palestinians with live fire during fierce clashes at Huwwara checkpoint to the north of the village.
