By Awad al-Rujoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli army late Wednesday forced three Palestinian families in two villages near the city of Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, to leave their homes, and turned them into military barracks.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli army forced a family in the village of Anin from their home and turned it into military barracks.

The agency quoted the homeowner – Yaser Yasin, 61 – as saying the army broke into his home, forced his family to leave, then turned it into barracks.

In another similar incident, the Israeli army also forcibly pushed two families – led by Abdelsalam Zeid and his brother Mohammad – living in a two-floor building in the village of Nazlet Zeid out of their homes and turned them into military barracks.

The Israeli army has yet to comment, but it was not the first time the army has forcibly turned Palestinian homes into barracks or observation points.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has carried out regular raids in the West Bank, escalating with the beginning of the war on Gaza last Oct. 7. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 722 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 6,000 others injured by Israeli army weapons fire in the occupied territory, according to the West Bank-based Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar