ISRAELI forces have killed a young Palestinian man in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, only a day after they fatally shot three youths in the territory as part of their intensified deadly raids.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the shooting took place during a confrontation between local Palestinians and Israeli troops after the latter broke into the al-Ain refugee camp, west of Nablus, and surrounded a house there on Wednesday morning.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that the victim, identified as 23-year-old Mohammed Abd al-Hakim Nada, was taken to hospital in very critical condition.
He was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to the medical centre.
On Tuesday, three Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli military in Nablus.
The Israeli military said its forces had ‘engaged and neutralised’ three alleged Palestinian gunmen, claiming that three assault rifles, a handgun, and other equipment were confiscated from their vehicle.
The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement later announced that they were members of the group.
‘The martyrdom of the three young Palestinians does not weaken resistance to the Israeli occupation … and our youth will keep to the path until they achieve their goal,’ it noted.
Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank in recent months, with the Israeli military carrying out near-nightly raids and the Palestinians responding with retaliatory attacks.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the beginning of this year.
- Israel has stepped up its atrocities in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem), killing 42 Palestinians in its attacks on refugee camps since the beginning of this year, a new report says.
The report released on Monday by the Palestinian data centre ‘Mu’ti’ said that Aqabat Jaber camp, situated near the eastern West Bank city of Jericho, was the target of 307 Israeli raids, the highest when compared with other Palestinian camps.
The regime forces arrested 335 Palestinians in their attacks that left 42 people dead and 373 others injured, added the report, carried by the Palestinian Information Centre.
It also recorded 1,561 Israeli crimes against the residents of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and al-Quds so far in 2023.
The occupation forces, the report said, stormed 277 Palestinian homes, illegally possessed two houses and destroyed 17 properties.
The Israeli military carries out deadly raids on various Palestinian towns across the occupied West Bank almost on a daily basis under the pretext of detaining what it calls ‘wanted’ Palestinians.
The violent near-nightly attacks spark heavy clashes with local Palestinians.
Recently, the Tel Aviv regime waged a two-day aerial and ground offensive against the West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed and 140 others injured during the aggression.
Data shows that as many as 206 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the beginning of this year.
On Sunday, the Palestine centre for Prisoners’ Studies (PCPS) said the Israeli soldiers had arrested 570 Palestinian minors in the first half of 2023.
PCPS director Riyad al-Ashqar said the figure shows a 15 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
He further noted that 29 of the detained minors are under 12, including two 10-year-old Palestinians.
‘Dozens of children were held in home confinement following their release in the first half of 2023,’ Ashqar said.
He added that 23 Palestinian minors were arrested under Tel Aviv’s inhumane administrative detention policy, which allows incarcerating Palestinian inmates without trial or charge.
The administrative detention takes place on the orders of a military commander and on the basis of what the regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
According to the latest figures released by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Israel is currently holding around 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in its prisons and detention facilities, including 155 children and 32 women.
The figure also includes 1,014 Palestinians, who are being kept under the regime’s administrative detention policy.
In June, the Palestinian Administrative Detainees’ Committee announced that Palestinian prisoners held under Israel’s administrative detention policy were planning a mass open-ended hunger strike in protest at their unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.
- Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has blamed the US for fomenting global crises, saying Washington and its Western allies have generated ‘a state of global instability’ in efforts to weaken rival Russia.
The United States and its Western allies ‘have fabricated a global political and economic crisis and caused a state of global instability with the aim of undermining Russia’s position and its international presence’, Assad said during a meeting in Damascus with visiting Russian presidential envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
‘They used Ukraine as an instrument to push such objectives, but the repercussions of the crisis began to unfold in their respective countries in terms of living conditions, as well as social and economic life,’ President Assad further told Lavrentiev and his accompanying delegation.
He also pointed out that Moscow’s firm position toward the West and the United States remains one of the most important factors leading to the emerging establishment of a multi-polar world.
The Syrian president further discussed regional issues with the Russian envoy, including matters such as the return of the Syrian refugees and the need for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Syria.
Lavrentiev, for his part, conveyed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s greetings to Assad, stressing Moscow’s support for the Damascus government to enhance the security and stability of the Syrian nation.
The senior Russian diplomat also underlined the need for closer cooperation between the two countries to secure a decent return of Syrian refugees to their motherland.
He noted that Russia and Syria are committed to the humanitarian dimension of the Syrian refugee crisis, and categorically reject all attempts to politicise the matter.
The development came a week after a senior Russian diplomat lashed out at the persisting illegal presence of US forces in Syria, demanding an immediate end to the American illegitimate military occupation of the Arab nation’s energy- and mineral-rich regions.
A top Russian diplomat slams the presence of US military forces in Syria, calling upon the Pentagon to end its illegitimate occupation of mineral-rich parts of the country.
‘Washington uses the pretext of combating terrorism to be present east of the Euphrates in economically important areas, where crude oil and strategic natural reserves are abundant’ said Russian president’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, who also serves Moscow as deputy foreign minister, in an interview published last week by al-Arabiya television news network.
‘At the same time,’ he further pointed out, ‘its troops are deployed at al-Tanf area in southern Syria,’ blasting the practice as a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
Bogdanov also censured US support in the terror-ravaged country for the anti-Damascus Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.