The Israeli army killed a Palestinian youth at the Nur Shams refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday, the second day of an incursion, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency Wafa reported. Mohammad Faisal Dawas (28), was shot by a sniper. Troops rounded up men for questioning, blew up one home and burned another. According to Wafa, the shops and houses were damaged in the raid, as well as Al-Salam mosque, while ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded.
Eight Palestinians were also injured by Israeli live fire and rubber bullets at Al-Amari camp south of Ramallah and 48 Palestinians were detained across the West Bank. Ten Palestinians were killed on Wednesday.
Military operations on the West Bank have escalated since Hamas fighters raided Israel on October 7th, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage. The Israeli military, which carries out multi-day incursions, has used drones, tanks, helicopter gunships, and warplanes against Palestinian camps, cities, towns, and villages.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 507 West Bank Palestinians, including 120 children, were killed in 2023. This was than twice the number of fatalities in any year since the UN began keeping records in 2005. There have been 355 deaths in the last three months, including 90 children. According to Wafa, nearly 6,025 Palestinians have been arrested.
On Wednesday, the BBC published a report by Lucy Williamson who investigated a January 7th Israeli strike that killed seven Palestinians as they sat around fire on a road 10km from Jenin city. Witnesses told her four of the men were brothers, aged between 22-29, and three were relatives. Her sources said they “were civilians with no links to armed groups and who posed no threat to Israeli forces.” All had difficult-to-obtain permits to work in Israel.
Paramedic Khalid al-Ahmed told the BBC there were no weapons at the scene. “One of them was wearing slippers and pyjamas. Don’t you think that someone who wants to resist [the Israeli occupation] would at least wear proper shoes?”
[ Israel-Hamas war: Israeli military says it killed 60 fighters in GazaOpens in new window ]
Armed groups did not claim the men were martyrs, as they do with fighters.
The Israeli army responded to criticism about the attack by saying “an aircraft struck a terrorist squad that hurled explosives at the forces operating in the area” while troops were conducting an operation in Jenin.
Observers argue this campaign is far more deadly and destructive than the invasion of the West Bank from March 29th-April 21st, 2002, ordered by prime minister Ariel Sharon, during which the UN reported 497 Palestinians and 30 Israeli soldiers were killed and 7,000 Palestinians were detained.
According to a poll conducted from December 12th-January 5th in 16 countries by the Qatar-based Arab Centre for Research and policy Studies, 97 per cent of 8,000 respondents have suffered psychological stress due to the Gaza war. Some 67 per cent saw Hamas attack on Israel as “legitimate”, 92 per cent expressed solidarity with Palestinians and 94 per cent considered the US position negatively.
About 95 per cent of Palestinian respondents said their sense of security has been negatively affected, 60 per cent had witnessed Israeli raids and 44 per cent said they had been arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces.
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