Dozens of Israeli soldiers have stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus with the Red Crescent reporting at least seven people wounded in the raid.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military confirmed that its forces were conducting an operation in the northern West Bank city, without specifying its purpose.

The raid began at around 3am (0000 GMT), residents said, with soldiers in armoured vehicles storming several neighbourhoods of Nablus’s old city, which has a population of around 30,000 people.

Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told AFP that the “assault … is merely a show of force with no justification”.

One witness, who declined to give his name, reported that soldiers had expelled an elderly couple from their home.

Israeli troops “are storming and searching houses and shops inside the old city, while some houses have been turned into military posts”, said Ghassan Hamdan, head of the Palestinian Medical Relief organisation in Nablus.

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