The Israeli army has killed a Palestinian in West Bank in what makes the 6th casualty in two days, the Health Ministry has confirmed. These deaths come after days of repeated Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank that have led to clashes with angry Palestinians trying to protect their homes from demolition.
A ministry statement on Wednesday 30 said that the latest killing occurred in the town of Ya’bad, near Jenin, in the northern West Bank after a Palestinian succumbed to critical injuries he sustained from Israeli fire.
Israeli forces earlier raided the town of Ya’bad to arrest a Palestinian, triggering a clash with angry residents during which soldiers used live fire, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas canisters, eyewitnesses said.
Euronews explains, that the Israeli military statement did not confirm the Palestinian man’s death but said a wanted suspect was arrested and transferred for further processing after soldiers found an M16 rifle and 50,000 shekels ($14,507.05) that the military said was designated for “terrorist activity”.
More deaths
Other sources are pointing out that the victims Israel has claimed are at least 10. As TeleSur points out, Raids on Jenin and Nablus have been taking place as a part of the “Breaking the Wave” operation, which Israel began in March, unleashing a wave of violence that has made 2022 the bloodiest year since 2006.
Some of the victims have been two brothers, Jawad Rimawi (aged 22), and Thafer Rimawi (aged 19) in the village of Kufr Ein, northwest of Ramallah; Mufid Ikhlayel (aged 44) in Hebron and Mohammad Assadi (aged 26) and Naim Al-Zubaidi (aged 27), who were shot dead during a raid by the Israeli occupation forces on the Jenin camp.
The Israeli Army has confirmed the deaths of Assadi, whom it identified as a high-ranking agent of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militia, and of Al-Zubaidi, whom it defined as a militiaman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, TeleSur further explains.
The youngest victim has been 13-year-old Issa Hani Talaqat who was declared dead in Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva, south of Ramallah. The young boy, who is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, had been shot by Israeli police on the night of the Israeli elections, on November 1, but he died a month later. Talaqat is from Arara, one of the last remaining Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab.
After these deaths, the Nablus-based armed resistance group, the Lions’ Den has called for a general strike in mourning over the deaths of the Rimawis and Ikhlayel. As Mondoweiss picks up, in a statement shared via its Telegram account, the resistance group called on the people not to be quiescent “despite the bitterness of the economic conditions”.
The Palestinian health ministry has said 210 Palestinians have been killed this year, Euronews recalls. On the Israeli side, 23 civilians and eight security personnel have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli military figures, which show 136 Palestinians killed but do not include Gaza casualties.