NABLUS, Palestinian Territories —
Israeli forces killed four people Tuesday in
the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, including two
teens and an Al-Aqsa Brigades commander, according to AFP and Al Jazeera.
اضافة اعلان
The latest
Israeli attack comes two days after a truce halted deadly violence by the
Israeli military in the coastal Palestinian enclave of
Gaza, and as Israeli
forces continue months of at times deadly raids in the West Bank.
Amongst the four
is a 16-year-old killed in Nablus. The Palestinian health ministry later added
that another 17-year-old had been shot dead in the southern city of Hebron.
“The terrorist
Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi was killed in the city of Nablus,” the Israeli army said in
a statement, adding that “another terrorist who was staying in the house” also
died.
At around 5am
local time on Tuesday, Israeli forces surrounded a building in the Old City
where Nabulsi — the commander of
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — had barricaded
himself. According to Al Jazeera, a gunfight prior to his death lasted hours.
Nabulsi, known
popularly as “the lion of Nablus”, had been on the run for many months, and
survived several assassination attempts by Israel. His public appearances at
the funerals of his fellow comrades, such as in February and July, had further
raised the ire of Israeli forces, reported Al Jazeera.
Hundreds of
Palestinians surrounded the hospital and some made it inside the operating
room, hoping he would survive. Others shared Nabulsi’s will, which he recorded
in an audio message hours earlier.
“Take care of
the homeland,” he said. “I am surrounded now but I will fight until I become a
martyr. I love my mother. Don’t abandon the gun.”
Israeli Prime
Minister
Yair Lapid hailed the raid as a “highly successful, precise action
without casualties” among the security forces.
The Palestinian
Red Crescent Society said its medics treated 69 people for gunshot wounds
across the Nablus area, at least four of them in critical condition.
Following the
raid, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, one of the main resistance groups present in the
West Bank operating under the ruling Fatah party, said: “the response will fit
the crime”.
Hundreds of
mourners gathered in Nablus for the funeral procession of the three dead, with
some firing into the air as the bodies were carried through the crowd.
Teens killed
The
Palestinian health ministry identified those killed as Nabulsi,
Islam Sabbouh, and Hussein Taha.
Jamal Taha said
his 16-year-old son was killed while they were walking to work.
“The army was in
the old city. My son went ahead of me to the market, he was carrying his food.
There was shooting and four of us were injured,” he told AFP.
Later Tuesday,
the Palestinian health ministry said 17-year-old Moamen Jaber was shot in the
chest and killed by Israeli forces in Hebron.
Resistance
against Israeli forces also broke out in other parts of the city, as
Palestinians hurled stones at the troops.
“A violent clash
developed with dozens of rioters who threw stones and threw explosives at the
forces, who responded by means of crowd dispersal and shooting. Several
injuries were confirmed,” the army said.
Security forces
have conducted near-daily and often deadly operations in the West Bank in
recent months, focusing on fighters from the Islamic Jihad group.
On Friday,
Israel launched what it called a “pre-emptive” aerial and artillery bombardment
on Gaza targeting Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip.
An
Egypt-brokered ceasefire reached Sunday ended three days of intense Israeli
assault that killed 46 Palestinians, 16 of them children, and wounded 360,
according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
