Issued on: 07/03/2023 -
A person holds a weapon as mourners carry the body of a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli troops during a raid in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 7, 2023.
© Ammar Awad, Reuters
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least six Palestinian gunmen, including a Hamas gunman suspected of fatally shooting two brothers from a Jewish settlement near the village of Huwara.
Witnesses said fighting broke out after residents of the camp saw Israeli soldiers getting out of a furniture truck near a house on a hill overlooking the centre of the sprawling camp and fighters immediately opened fire.
In the ensuing gun battle, Israeli forces surrounded a house where the suspected gunman had barricaded himself with other fighters, and used shoulder-fired missiles against the building, a statement from the military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said six Palestinians were killed and at least 16 wounded. One member of the Israeli police force was wounded and three lightly hurt.
The military identified one of the gunmen as Abdel-Fattah Kharusha, a member of the Islamist group Hamas, who it said shot two Israelis while they sat in their car at a checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Huwara in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 26. It said his two sons had been arrested in a raid at the same time on the city of Nablus, another centre of militant activity.
According to statements by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all those killed were gunmen from the militant groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah.
"We call upon the fighters of our people everywhere to escalate armed resistance against the occupation and to fight them everywhere on the land of our occupied home," Hamas' armed wing said in a statement.
Hamas, which runs the blockaded Gaza Strip but which also has fighters in the West Bank, said Kharusha was a member and that he carried out the Huwara double killing, the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Israelis by Palestinians this year.
Jenin, one of the major centres of militant activity in the West Bank where armed fighters parade openly, has been raided repeatedly by Israeli forces during months of violence that has caused increasing fears of a repeat of the Intifadas or uprisings of the 1980s and early 2000s.
"The risk - not just to Palestine and to Israel but to the region - of the situation escalating out of hand is significant," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, told reporters in London.
The shooting of the two Israeli brothers triggered a revenge attack by Jewish settlers who killed a Palestinian man and torched dozens of houses and cars in a rampage described as a "pogrom" by a senior Israeli commander.
The rampage triggered worldwide outrage and condemnation, which was increased when ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for aspects of the West Bank administration, said Huwara should be "erased". Smotrich later offered a partial retraction.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken overnight reiterated calls for both sides to de-escalate tensions, and the violence is also expected to be raised by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week when he visits Israel.
However, there has been no sign of any let up in the violence, ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover festival.
More Huwara violence
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Tuesday's raid which came after a major reinforcement of Israeli forces in the West Bank following the violence in Huwara, which sits near a major road junction where settlers and Palestinians have frequently clashed.
Despite a crackdown by Israeli police, tensions have continued at Huwara and overnight Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the village.
Israeli army and border police forces dispersed what the military described as "a number of violent rioters" in Huwara. Videos shared on social media showed black-clad youths attacking a Palestinian car before its driver manages to pull away.
"My wife was sitting in the back and she hugged our daughter to cover her," said Omar Khalifa, who had just finished shopping at a supermarket and was in the car with his family. "We could have lost her. There was real danger to our lives."
Other footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers dancing together with Jewish settlers in the town on what was the Jewish festival of Purim. "Huwara has been conquered, gentlemen!" a voice is heard saying in Hebrew.
The military did not address a question about the footage of soldiers dancing with settlers when it responded to a request for information on the incident. Nor did it immediately respond to a Reuters query on whether there had been any arrests.
Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have killed more than 70 Palestinians, including militant fighters and civilians, while in the same period, Palestinians have killed 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian woman in a series of apparently uncoordinated attacks.
(REUTERS)
Israeli forces kill six Palestinians including wanted militant in Jenin raid
Tue, Mar 7, 2023,
The Palestinian health ministry said six men had been killed, one aged 49 and the rest in their 20s, in clashes that the army said included soldiers launching shoulder-fired rockets amid ferocious gunfire.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, called the use of rockets in the Jenin refugee camp -- the scene of frequent clashes in the northern West Bank -- an act of "all-out war", Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Witnesses said Israeli troops entered the camp and surrounded a house as a group of militants fought back, with the army reporting "explosive devices and blocks" were hurled at their soldiers.
An AFP photographer saw thick plumes of smoke rising from the building.
The Jenin Brigade, a militant group in the camp, said on one of their Telegram channels that their gunmen fought "violent clashes" with Israeli forces.
Among those killed was Abdel Fatah Hussein Khroushah, 49, who the Israeli army called a "terrorist operative" from the Islamist movement Hamas and accused of killing two Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara on February 26.
At least 26 Palestinians were wounded during Tuesday's raid, the Palestinian health ministry said, three of them with serious injuries. The army said two soldiers were lightly wounded.
It is the most recent in a string of fatal military operations in the Palestinian territory which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.
After fighting stopped, an AFP journalist who entered the wreckage of the house where Khroushah had been saw blackened walls riddled with bullet holes and entire walls smashed down.
- 'Dangerous escalation' -
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message troops had "eliminated the abhorrent terrorist", referring to Khroushah.
"Our brave soldiers acted with surgical precision in the heart of the murderers' lair," Netanyahu added of the deadly raid. "Whoever harms us will pay the price."
The Palestinian presidency spokesman Abu Rudeineh said Israel was "responsible for this dangerous escalation which threatens to inflame the situation and destroy all efforts aimed at restoring stability".
Last month, Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged in a joint statement to "prevent further violence" and "commit to de-escalation" following talks in Jordan.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet domestic security agency said on Tuesday they had carried out a separate raid in a refugee camp in the city of Nablus and arrested two of Khroushah's sons "suspected of aiding and planning in the terror attack".
Witnesses in Nablus, south of Jenin, said three men had been arrested.
The Israeli raids came amid celebrations for the Jewish holiday of Purim and against a backdrop of rising tensions since the beginning of the year, coinciding with Netanyahu's hard-right government which took office in December.
Some fear further violence particularly around Jerusalem's holy sites during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins in late March, and the Jewish holiday of Passover in April.
The killing of the two settlers -- brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22 -- in Huwara took place hours after the Jordan summit.
Hundreds of rampaging Israeli settlers later torched Palestinian homes and cars in the West Bank town.
Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 71 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
Thirteen Israeli adults and children, including members of the security forces and civilians, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.
bur-mj/pjm/ami
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least six Palestinian gunmen, including a Hamas gunman suspected of fatally shooting two brothers from a Jewish settlement near the village of Huwara.
Witnesses said fighting broke out after residents of the camp saw Israeli soldiers getting out of a furniture truck near a house on a hill overlooking the centre of the sprawling camp and fighters immediately opened fire.
In the ensuing gun battle, Israeli forces surrounded a house where the suspected gunman had barricaded himself with other fighters, and used shoulder-fired missiles against the building, a statement from the military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said six Palestinians were killed and at least 16 wounded. One member of the Israeli police force was wounded and three lightly hurt.
The military identified one of the gunmen as Abdel-Fattah Kharusha, a member of the Islamist group Hamas, who it said shot two Israelis while they sat in their car at a checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Huwara in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 26. It said his two sons had been arrested in a raid at the same time on the city of Nablus, another centre of militant activity.
According to statements by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all those killed were gunmen from the militant groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah.
"We call upon the fighters of our people everywhere to escalate armed resistance against the occupation and to fight them everywhere on the land of our occupied home," Hamas' armed wing said in a statement.
Hamas, which runs the blockaded Gaza Strip but which also has fighters in the West Bank, said Kharusha was a member and that he carried out the Huwara double killing, the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Israelis by Palestinians this year.
Jenin, one of the major centres of militant activity in the West Bank where armed fighters parade openly, has been raided repeatedly by Israeli forces during months of violence that has caused increasing fears of a repeat of the Intifadas or uprisings of the 1980s and early 2000s.
"The risk - not just to Palestine and to Israel but to the region - of the situation escalating out of hand is significant," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, told reporters in London.
The shooting of the two Israeli brothers triggered a revenge attack by Jewish settlers who killed a Palestinian man and torched dozens of houses and cars in a rampage described as a "pogrom" by a senior Israeli commander.
The rampage triggered worldwide outrage and condemnation, which was increased when ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for aspects of the West Bank administration, said Huwara should be "erased". Smotrich later offered a partial retraction.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken overnight reiterated calls for both sides to de-escalate tensions, and the violence is also expected to be raised by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week when he visits Israel.
However, there has been no sign of any let up in the violence, ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover festival.
More Huwara violence
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Tuesday's raid which came after a major reinforcement of Israeli forces in the West Bank following the violence in Huwara, which sits near a major road junction where settlers and Palestinians have frequently clashed.
Despite a crackdown by Israeli police, tensions have continued at Huwara and overnight Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the village.
Israeli army and border police forces dispersed what the military described as "a number of violent rioters" in Huwara. Videos shared on social media showed black-clad youths attacking a Palestinian car before its driver manages to pull away.
"My wife was sitting in the back and she hugged our daughter to cover her," said Omar Khalifa, who had just finished shopping at a supermarket and was in the car with his family. "We could have lost her. There was real danger to our lives."
Other footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers dancing together with Jewish settlers in the town on what was the Jewish festival of Purim. "Huwara has been conquered, gentlemen!" a voice is heard saying in Hebrew.
The military did not address a question about the footage of soldiers dancing with settlers when it responded to a request for information on the incident. Nor did it immediately respond to a Reuters query on whether there had been any arrests.
Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have killed more than 70 Palestinians, including militant fighters and civilians, while in the same period, Palestinians have killed 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian woman in a series of apparently uncoordinated attacks.
(REUTERS)
Israeli forces kill six Palestinians including wanted militant in Jenin raid
Tue, Mar 7, 2023,
Israeli troops on Tuesday killed six Palestinians in Jenin including an alleged militant accused of killing two Israelis, the latest deadly raid in a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry said six men had been killed, one aged 49 and the rest in their 20s, in clashes that the army said included soldiers launching shoulder-fired rockets amid ferocious gunfire.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, called the use of rockets in the Jenin refugee camp -- the scene of frequent clashes in the northern West Bank -- an act of "all-out war", Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Witnesses said Israeli troops entered the camp and surrounded a house as a group of militants fought back, with the army reporting "explosive devices and blocks" were hurled at their soldiers.
An AFP photographer saw thick plumes of smoke rising from the building.
The Jenin Brigade, a militant group in the camp, said on one of their Telegram channels that their gunmen fought "violent clashes" with Israeli forces.
Among those killed was Abdel Fatah Hussein Khroushah, 49, who the Israeli army called a "terrorist operative" from the Islamist movement Hamas and accused of killing two Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara on February 26.
At least 26 Palestinians were wounded during Tuesday's raid, the Palestinian health ministry said, three of them with serious injuries. The army said two soldiers were lightly wounded.
It is the most recent in a string of fatal military operations in the Palestinian territory which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.
After fighting stopped, an AFP journalist who entered the wreckage of the house where Khroushah had been saw blackened walls riddled with bullet holes and entire walls smashed down.
- 'Dangerous escalation' -
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message troops had "eliminated the abhorrent terrorist", referring to Khroushah.
"Our brave soldiers acted with surgical precision in the heart of the murderers' lair," Netanyahu added of the deadly raid. "Whoever harms us will pay the price."
The Palestinian presidency spokesman Abu Rudeineh said Israel was "responsible for this dangerous escalation which threatens to inflame the situation and destroy all efforts aimed at restoring stability".
Last month, Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged in a joint statement to "prevent further violence" and "commit to de-escalation" following talks in Jordan.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet domestic security agency said on Tuesday they had carried out a separate raid in a refugee camp in the city of Nablus and arrested two of Khroushah's sons "suspected of aiding and planning in the terror attack".
Witnesses in Nablus, south of Jenin, said three men had been arrested.
The Israeli raids came amid celebrations for the Jewish holiday of Purim and against a backdrop of rising tensions since the beginning of the year, coinciding with Netanyahu's hard-right government which took office in December.
Some fear further violence particularly around Jerusalem's holy sites during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins in late March, and the Jewish holiday of Passover in April.
The killing of the two settlers -- brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22 -- in Huwara took place hours after the Jordan summit.
Hundreds of rampaging Israeli settlers later torched Palestinian homes and cars in the West Bank town.
Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 71 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
Thirteen Israeli adults and children, including members of the security forces and civilians, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.
bur-mj/pjm/ami
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