The IDF arrested more than 100 women from the Awarta village in the West Bank in connection to the ongoing investigation into the deaths if a couple and three of their children, including one baby, in the Itamar settlement last month, AFP reported Thursday. Awarta lies close to the Itamar settlement and Nablus.
The local council head told AFP that the IDF had stormed Awarta shortly after midnight, imposing a curfew and beginning to round up women. Though the IDF has been conducting consistent raids in the last four weeks since the Itamar murders, this is the first time the IDF has arrested women, the local council head added. The IDF was yet to comment on the operation.
According to one witness from Awarta, IDF forces entered several homes in the village, ordered different women out of their houses and took them to an undisclosed location for questioning. The IDF arrested at least 100 women, the witness told Ma'an. Last week, the IDF carried out a widescale operation in Awarta, imposing a curfew and arresting at least 60 village residents. As yet, no one has been charged in the murder of the five Fogel family members.