- Tom Bateman in Nablus and David Griten in London
- BBC
Palestinian youth throwing stones and other objects at Israeli armored personnel carriers
Eleven Palestinians were killed by Israeli army bullets and more than 100 injured Wednesday in a military operation in the city of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to officials in the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Bombs and gunshots were heard near the old city of Nablus on Wednesday, as Israeli forces attempted to storm the city, and Palestinian gunmen clashed with them.
The Israeli army said that it had killed 3 of the wanted gunmen, inside a besieged house, after they refused to surrender.
But many of the dead were civilians, including two elderly people.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that a 72-year-old civilian, Adnan Sab’, was among the dead, and a video clip showed his body next to bags of bread in the street.
The ministry added that Abd al-Hadi Ashqar, 61, and Muhammad Shaban, a 16-year-old child, were among the dead, and another sheikh, 66-year-old Anan Shawkat, died as a result of tear gas canisters, at the time later wed.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the “illegal” Israeli settlements, and told the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, “Every new settlement is an additional obstacle to peace. Every settlement activity is illegal under international law and must stop.” “At the same time, incitement to violence is a dead end. Nothing justifies terrorism, which should be rejected by all.”
The Lions’ Den and other Palestinian armed groups said, on the Telegram application, that 6 of their members were “martyred” during the attack.
The Palestinian presidency condemned the “Israeli aggression” and described it as a “crime”. According to what was published by the official Palestinian news agency (Wafa), the presidency held the “Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation.”
The victims of the attack exceeded the number of victims of the previous attack, last month, on the city of Jenin, which was the most violent in the West Bank since 2005.
The massive attack caused dozens of injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which said that more than 80 people were wounded by gunshots, and they were transferred to more than 5 hospitals for treatment.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a prominent Palestinian official, condemned what he called the “massacre,” while the Palestinian president’s spokesman held the Israeli government responsible for “this dangerous escalation, which is pushing the region to more tension and explosion.”
For its part, the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, warned that it is “watching the escalating crimes committed by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank, and our patience is running out.”
image copyright EPA
Part of the funeral of the victims of the Nablus attack
The attack lasted 4 hours, and began just before midday, when the streets of the old city were crowded with shoppers and families.
Khalil Shaheen, a resident of the city, said that the explosion woke him up from his sleep.
The Israeli army said that it “developed” the operation after Palestinian gunmen fired bullets at its soldiers, and the Israeli forces fired shoulder-fired missiles at a building in which wanted gunmen were sheltering, which led to the partial collapse of the building.
The army said it decided to attack the building quickly, after reports of a Facebook post locating one of the gunmen.
“We identified the source of the threat, we had to act, and finish the job,” Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the Israeli military, added in a statement to reporters.
However, Palestinian video clips showed a number of unarmed civilians being shot while they were fleeing, and one of them fell to the ground, while gunshots were heard. The Israeli army described the clips as “problematic” and added that it was investigating them.
Among the gunmen sheltering in the besieged building were two: Muhammad Junaidi, a leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, and Hussein Salim, another prominent operative.
The Israeli army said that they and the third gunman, Walid Dakhil, were suspected of having launched attacks using bullets, earlier in the West Bank, about 4 months ago, which led to the death of an Israeli soldier, and they also planned other attacks in the near future, and two other gunmen were arrested. in Nablus last week.
During the attack, Salim posted an audio clip on WhatsApp, which was widely shared on social media platforms, in which he says, “We are in trouble, but we will not surrender ourselves, we will not lay down our weapons, and I will die a martyr, so continue to bear arms after us.”
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, also condemned the Israeli incursion into the city of Nablus, describing it as “organized terrorism”, through which Israel seeks to export its internal crisis to the Palestinian arena.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, calling on them to “restore calm.”
At the beginning of this month, the Israeli forces raided Salim’s house, and his family was interrogated. His father told Palestinian media that they told him that his son must turn himself in, otherwise he will be killed.
Salim and Junaidi were among the most prominent leaders of the armed group “The Lions’ Den”, a new group that appeared in the city of Nablus last year, amid the decline of the control of the National Authority and its security forces.
As with another group, in the nearby city of Jenin, young militants are using TikTok and Telegram to spread messages of armed resistance to the Israeli occupation to a new generation of Palestinians.
Israel targeted the two cities with a wide wave of raids, searches, arrests, and attempts to gather intelligence, stressing that it seeks to prevent imminent attacks against Israelis.
So far, more than 60 Palestinians, militants, and civilians have been killed, while 11 Israelis have been killed in attacks launched by the Palestinians.
The recent attack in Nablus is an indication that the recent attempts at calm, led by the United States, are failing.
This week, the Palestinian National Authority abandoned its attempt to push for a vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution banning the new Israeli government because of its announced plans to expand settlements in the West Bank.
As part of a common understanding, the Israeli government later said that it would not announce new projects to expand settlements in the coming months, and according to sources quoted by Israeli media, the government would also begin to reduce the intensity of its raids on Palestinian cities.
