Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians in West Bank confrontation
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Mourners carry the bodies of Samer Houshiyeh, 21, left, and Fouad Abed, 25, during their funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. The two men were killed in the village of Kafr Dan near the northern city of Jenin. The Israeli military said it entered Kafr Dan late Sunday to demolish the houses of two Palestinian gunmen who killed an Israeli soldier during a firefight in September. The military said troops came under heavy fire and fired back at the shooters. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a man claimed by an armed group as a member, during a confrontation that erupted early Monday when troops entered a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.
The two men were killed in the village of Kafr Dan near the northern city of Jenin. The Israeli military said it entered Kafr Dan late Sunday to demolish the houses of two Palestinian gunmen who killed an Israeli soldier during a firefight in September. The military said troops came under heavy fire and fired back at the shooters.
It was the latest bloodshed in the region that has seen Israeli-Palestinian tensions surge for months. On Monday, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem said 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2004, a period of intense violence that came during a Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those killed as Samer Houshiyeh, 21, and Fouad Abed, 25. Houshiyeh was shot several times in the chest, according to Samer Attiyeh, the director of the Ibn Sina Hosipital in Jenin. Attiyeh initially said Abed was 17, but the ministry later gave his age as 25.
An armed group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, later claimed Houshiyeh as a member. The group, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, published an older photo in which Houshiyeh had posed with rifles. Video on social media showed his body wrapped with the armed group’s flag as his mother and other mourners bid farewell.
It was not immediately clear whether the second Palestinian killed was also affiliated with a militant group.
Israel says it demolishes the homes of militants as a way to deter potential attackers. Critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
The Israeli military has been conducting near-daily raids into Palestinian cities and towns since a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 last spring.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, according to B’Tselem’s figures, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, when 197 Palestinians were killed. A fresh wave of attacks killed at least another nine Israelis in the fall. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek those territories for a future state.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a man claimed by an armed group as a member, during a confrontation that erupted early Monday when troops entered a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.
The two men were killed in the village of Kafr Dan near the northern city of Jenin. The Israeli military said it entered Kafr Dan late Sunday to demolish the houses of two Palestinian gunmen who killed an Israeli soldier during a firefight in September. The military said troops came under heavy fire and fired back at the shooters.
It was the latest bloodshed in the region that has seen Israeli-Palestinian tensions surge for months. On Monday, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem said 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2004, a period of intense violence that came during a Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those killed as Samer Houshiyeh, 21, and Fouad Abed, 25. Houshiyeh was shot several times in the chest, according to Samer Attiyeh, the director of the Ibn Sina Hosipital in Jenin. Attiyeh initially said Abed was 17, but the ministry later gave his age as 25.
An armed group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, later claimed Houshiyeh as a member. The group, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, published an older photo in which Houshiyeh had posed with rifles. Video on social media showed his body wrapped with the armed group’s flag as his mother and other mourners bid farewell.
It was not immediately clear whether the second Palestinian killed was also affiliated with a militant group.
Israel says it demolishes the homes of militants as a way to deter potential attackers. Critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
The Israeli military has been conducting near-daily raids into Palestinian cities and towns since a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 last spring.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, according to B’Tselem’s figures, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, when 197 Palestinians were killed. A fresh wave of attacks killed at least another nine Israelis in the fall. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek those territories for a future state.
With start of new year, Israel kills 2 Palestinians, demolishes 2 homes
Israel has already killed two Palestinians and demolished two homes in 2023, signaling that 'Operation Break the Wave' is far from over.
BY MARIAM BARGHOUTI
Israel has already killed two Palestinians and demolished two homes in 2023, signaling that 'Operation Break the Wave' is far from over.
BY MARIAM BARGHOUTI
MOURNERS ATTEND THE FUNERAL OF MOHAMMAD HOSHIEH AND FUAD ABED WHO WERE KILLED BY ISRAELI FORCES DURING A RAID, IN THE WEST BANK CITY OF JENIN ON JANUARY 2, 2023.
(PHOTO: BY AHMED IBRAHIM/APA IMAGES)
On Monday morning, January 2, Israeli military forces invaded the town of Kufr Dan and killed Foad Mahmoud Abed, 18, and Mohammad Samer Hosheyeh, 22. Three others were injured, with one critically wounded in the chest.
Abed and Hosheyh were killed during armed confrontations with Israeli soldiers who invaded Kufr Dan with the purpose of punitively demolishing the homes of Abed al-Rahman Abed, 22, and Ahmad Abed, 23, two Palestinians who had carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation in September of last year that killed one Israeli soldier. Three apartments were destroyed, displacing 13 people.
‘Break the Wave’ continues
Foad Abed is the first Palestinian killed in Jenin this year. Last year was one of the deadliest years in the West Bank since 2005, as Israeli forces and settlers killed 231 Palestinians through extrajudicial assassinations and home invasions.
Israeli forces invaded the town around midnight where armed confrontation with youth ensued. By 3:00 a.m, Israeli soldiers had shot and killed two Palestinians. Hosheyeh was killed with a bullet to the chest while Abed was killed with several bullets to his abdomen and thigh.
Hosheyeh’s mother made her way through a group of men just before the call for dawn prayers to carry the body of her slain son on her shoulders.
In a statement, the Israeli military spokesperson said that “the IDF is currently conducting a military activity in Kufr Dan in the district of Jenin to demolish the homes of those that clashed with soldiers near the Jalamah crossing and in which an army commander was killed on September 14, 2022.”
On September 14 of last year, Ahmad and Abed al-Rahman shot at the military checkpoint of Al-Jalameh, west of Jenin, killing the deputy commander of the Nahal Brigade’s Special Reconnaissance Unit, Major Bar Falach, 30.
Homes punitively demolished
At approximately 12:00 a.m. on January 2, Israeli jeeps raided Kufr Dan with the purpose of demolishing two Palestinian homes as a measure of collective punishment against the families of the two men who carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation.
After killing the two martyrs at the beginning of this year, the Israeli military continued its demolition mission of the family home of Ahmad Abed, expelling the family members before the demolition.
According to local journalists in Jenin, at approximately 8:50 a.m., the second home, belonging to the family of Abed al-Rahman Abed, was also forcibly evacuated at gun-point and detonated, reducing it to a pile of rubble. The family was forced outside of the house without enough clothes for the cold.
Punitive home demolitions as a measure of collective punishment has been practiced by the Israeli state since the 1980s. Illegal under international law, this practice was first employed against Palestinians by the British during its colonial Mandate over Palestine.
On Monday morning, January 2, Israeli military forces invaded the town of Kufr Dan and killed Foad Mahmoud Abed, 18, and Mohammad Samer Hosheyeh, 22. Three others were injured, with one critically wounded in the chest.
Abed and Hosheyh were killed during armed confrontations with Israeli soldiers who invaded Kufr Dan with the purpose of punitively demolishing the homes of Abed al-Rahman Abed, 22, and Ahmad Abed, 23, two Palestinians who had carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation in September of last year that killed one Israeli soldier. Three apartments were destroyed, displacing 13 people.
‘Break the Wave’ continues
Foad Abed is the first Palestinian killed in Jenin this year. Last year was one of the deadliest years in the West Bank since 2005, as Israeli forces and settlers killed 231 Palestinians through extrajudicial assassinations and home invasions.
Israeli forces invaded the town around midnight where armed confrontation with youth ensued. By 3:00 a.m, Israeli soldiers had shot and killed two Palestinians. Hosheyeh was killed with a bullet to the chest while Abed was killed with several bullets to his abdomen and thigh.
Hosheyeh’s mother made her way through a group of men just before the call for dawn prayers to carry the body of her slain son on her shoulders.
In a statement, the Israeli military spokesperson said that “the IDF is currently conducting a military activity in Kufr Dan in the district of Jenin to demolish the homes of those that clashed with soldiers near the Jalamah crossing and in which an army commander was killed on September 14, 2022.”
On September 14 of last year, Ahmad and Abed al-Rahman shot at the military checkpoint of Al-Jalameh, west of Jenin, killing the deputy commander of the Nahal Brigade’s Special Reconnaissance Unit, Major Bar Falach, 30.
Homes punitively demolished
At approximately 12:00 a.m. on January 2, Israeli jeeps raided Kufr Dan with the purpose of demolishing two Palestinian homes as a measure of collective punishment against the families of the two men who carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation.
After killing the two martyrs at the beginning of this year, the Israeli military continued its demolition mission of the family home of Ahmad Abed, expelling the family members before the demolition.
According to local journalists in Jenin, at approximately 8:50 a.m., the second home, belonging to the family of Abed al-Rahman Abed, was also forcibly evacuated at gun-point and detonated, reducing it to a pile of rubble. The family was forced outside of the house without enough clothes for the cold.
Punitive home demolitions as a measure of collective punishment has been practiced by the Israeli state since the 1980s. Illegal under international law, this practice was first employed against Palestinians by the British during its colonial Mandate over Palestine.
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