Six Palestinians, including a wanted individual, killed in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank – RT in French

Six Palestinians, including the author of an attack that claimed the lives of two Israelis, were killed during a new Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank, the latest episode in a wave of violence that seems not to want to ebb.

According to corroborating information provided by the Israeli forces and testimonies collected on the spot by AFP, on March 7 Israeli soldiers surrounded a building where Abdel Fatah Hussein Khrouchah, a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, had taken refuge. , in the Jenin refugee camp.

Violent clashes pitted them against armed men inside, but also against Palestinian fighters in the streets of this urban area in the northern West Bank. Witnesses quoted by AFP spoke of rocket fire at the building. The army confirmed that “portable missile launchers” had been used against the apartment building. Inside, sections of collapsed walls bear witness to the violence of the fighting.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of six Palestinians “killed by the occupation [israélienne] in Jenin”: in addition to Abdel Fatah Husseïn Khrouchah, 49, five men aged 22 to 29. And 26 other people were injured, three of them seriously. Israeli forces reported two minor injuries in their ranks.

Israeli authorities say Abdel Fatah Hussein Khrouchah was the perpetrator of the February 26 attack that claimed the lives of two brothers living in a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

An act of “total war”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the soldiers for “acting with surgical precision in the hideout of the assassins” and “eliminating [un] heinous terrorist”. “Anyone who hurts us will pay the price,” he added.

“The crimes and massacres perpetrated by the Israelis will not intimidate our Palestinian people but will strengthen them in their determination to fight the Israeli occupation,” Hamas reacted.

Islamic Jihad issued a statement with a similar tone, as did Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, the text of which suggests that members of the Palestinian security forces took part in the fighting against the Israeli army.

Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, denounced as an act of “total war” the use of rockets against homes in the city and accused the Israeli government of being “responsible [d’une] dangerous escalation which threatens to inflame the situation and destroy all efforts to restore stability”.

In the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, another city in the northern West Bank, the scene, like Jenin, of repeated Israeli military raids described by the army as “anti-terrorist operations” for almost a year, the soldiers arrested three son of Khrushah, according to Palestinian sources.

“Additional deterioration”

The Shin Beth, the Israeli internal security, indicates for its part that two sons of Abdel Fatah Hussein Khrouchah have been arrested and that they are suspected of having helped their father to plan his attack.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 71 Palestinians (including combatants and civilians, including minors) and 13 Israelis (including minors and security forces) and one Ukrainian, according to an AFP count compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.

After a rare meeting in Aqaba (Jordan), Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged on February 26 to work towards a “de-escalation”. But even as this meeting was taking place, the murderous attack attributed by Israel to Abdel Fatah Hussein Khrouchah took place, and the following night, Jewish settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara in retaliation, setting fire to several buildings.

On the night of March 7 to 8, warning sirens sounded in Nir Am, a small Israeli town located just a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, following a rocket attack identified from this Palestinian territory. under Hamas control, the IDF said. The rocket “appears to have exploded inside the Gaza Strip,” the army added in a brief statement.