Israel Kill 2 Palestinians in West Bank
Palestinian officials reported that the Israeli army killed two Palestinians in a West Bank raid on Monday while destroying the homes of two Palestinians suspected of killing an Israeli soldier.
During an Israeli army raid in Jenin, two Palestinians were killed: Muhammad Samer Hoshieh, 22, who was shot in the chest, and Fuad Mohammad Abed, 25, who was wounded in the abdomen and thigh.
In order to destroy the homes of the shooters who took part in the shooting near the Gilboa (Jalame) Crossing, in which Major Bar Falah was murdered, Israeli soldiers had stormed the town of Kafr Dan, according to the Israeli military.
Just after daylight on Monday, two houses were explosively demolished, filling the small community with clouds of smoke.
When troops entered the area, the army later claimed that “a violent disturbance was instigated.”
The statement read, “Rioters torched tires, fired live fire, threw rocks, Molotov cocktails, and explosives at the forces, who replied with riot dispersal tools and live fire.” Hits were found, it continued.
18 further people were detained by the Israeli army in nighttime searches across the West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The Israeli major Falah was murdered in September 2022 at the Gilboa crossing separating Israel and the occupied West Bank amid battles with Palestinian insurgents.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party, took credit for his death after it occurred.
The same confrontations in September that Falah perished in also claimed the lives of Ahmed Abed, 23, and Abdul Rahman Subhi Abed, 22, whose family houses were destroyed on Monday.
New Administration
Israel frequently demolishes the homes of people it holds accountable for attacks against Israelis.
Human rights advocates claim that because it can leave non-combatants, including children, homeless, Israel’s tactic of destroying the homes of alleged assailants amounts to collective punishment.
Israel claims that the tactic works to stop some Palestinians from attacking, nevertheless.
The two fatalities are 2023’s first in the West Bank.
Data from the United Nations show that 2022 was the bloodiest year for Palestinians since the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2002 to 2005. At least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis died in Israel and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied.
Fears of a military escalation in the West Bank, which Israel has been occupying since 1967, have been raised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing cabinet, one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
Two of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies will be in control of significant powers in relation to Palestinians in the West Bank after being sworn in Thursday with the rest of the new administration.
Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank will be overseen by Bezalel Smotrich, and Itamar Ben-Gvir has been appointed as the country’s next national security minister with authority over the border police, which is also present there.
Both have a track record of making hurtful comments against Palestinians.
