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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces stormed the West Bank village of Barqa west of Nablus early Thursday and ransacked 36 homes, a Palestinian official said.

Wael Daghlas, a member of the Barqa village council, told Ma'an that hundreds of soldiers were involved in the raid.

Rafat Seif, 48, a resident of the village, told Ma'an that Israeli forces stormed his house at 2 a.m. without warning. Soldiers gathered his family members in one room during the raid, he said.

Seif said Israeli forces ransacked the home and destroyed the contents. He pointed out that his four children did not go to school because they had no clothes to wear.

A Ma'an photographer confirmed the accounts and said Israeli forces also ransacked the house of the Salah family.

Family member Iyad Salah is a long-term prisoner in Israeli jail. The soldiers destroyed his brother's bedroom.

Iyad's 76-year-old mother said "I was awake until 2 a.m., and the Israeli forces came and ransacked the house.

"They said that they came to inspect the house, but they destroyed all the house's content. Even the livestock, they killed one sheep."

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that the raid could be viewed as an Israeli reaction to the UN's acceptance of Palestine as a state.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers found weapons in some of the homes.

She said soldiers "uncovered knives as well as an air rifle and 16 pistols," a hunting gun, ammunition and "Hamas affiliated items" in the homes.