IDF raids West Bank’s Birzeit University, says it aimed to disrupt ‘pro-terror’ gathering
Palestinians report 11 injured, including five from live fire; military says hundreds violently clashed with troops, who shot at key instigators posing immediate threat
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Israeli forces clashed Tuesday with students during a raid at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah in the West Bank, in what the military said was an operation aimed at disrupting a pro-terror gathering.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 11 students were hospitalized, including five with bullet wounds. No troops were reported injured.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that Israeli forces broke into campus buildings and seized property belonging to a Hamas-affiliated student bloc.
The IDF said the raid was prompted by intelligence indicating that a “gathering in support of terrorism” was expected to take place on campus.
According to the military, IDF troops and Border Police officers entered the university area as the gathering began, used crowd-dispersal measures and fired warning shots only, eventually dispersing the crowd.
The IDF said that later, an additional violent disturbance developed involving hundreds of suspects, during which stones and rocks were thrown from rooftops toward Israeli forces, posing what it described as an immediate threat. Troops responded with additional crowd-control measures and live fire directed at “central violent instigators.”
The army vowed it would continue to act decisively and would not allow incitement to terrorism against Israeli citizens.
#شاهد| قوات الاحتلال تطلق قنابل الغاز تجاه الطلاب في جامعة بيرزيت شمال رام الله. pic.twitter.com/AUnslmPIH1
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 6, 2026
“Unfortunately, the university has been a recurring target, but this time the brutality crossed all limits,” the institute’s president Talal Shahwan told a news conference.
Palestinians consider the university to be one of the best in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestinian media, the IDF closed all the university’s gates during the raid.
About 8,000 students were on campus at the time, WAFA said.
Footage from the campus showed some students fleeing as tear gas canisters landed behind them.
Additional footage from the campus showed military vehicles and troops moving about, and troops and police officers could be seen searching a car and entering a building. The footage appeared to show at least seven armored vehicles on the campus.
عاجل| الاحتلال يحتجز الصحفيين الزملاء معتصم سقف الحيط وكريم خمايسة عند مدخل كلية التجارة بجامعة بيرزيت. pic.twitter.com/hENmuKjpzk
— شبكة قدس | الأسرى (@asranews) January 6, 2026
Rafi Asfour, head of the student union, said the gathering was organized by the student movement as a protest against what he called Israel’s “prolonged aggression” in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He charged that the raid was intended as “a show of force and control,” Ynet reported.
The event appeared to have been a vigil in support of Palestinians jailed by Israel, according to Arabic media.
The university said that security forces detained its Vice President for Academic Affairs, Assem Khalil. Footage posted to social media purported to show the moment soldiers led Khalil away.
תיעוד: כוחות צה"ל עוצרים את המרצה עאסם חליל באוניברסיטת ביר זית שליד רמאללה.
שימוש לפי סעיף 27א' לחוק זכויות יוצרים pic.twitter.com/qiXhSu4mQv— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) January 6, 2026
The daytime raid came after the IDF carried out a predawn search at Birzeit last month.
In November, the military launched a wide-scale counterterror operation in the northern West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.
The Times of Israel Community.