Palestine: Israeli forces kill 6 Palestinians in West Bank

Palestine (Imemc & Wafa): Six Palestinians – five on Monday and one on Tuesday, were killed by Israeli forces during raids on refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, according to the local media.

Palestine’s official Wafa news agency quoted Jericho Governor Jihad Abu al-Assal as saying that five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli forces during their incursion into the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp near the Jericho city on Monday dawn.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said the soldiers also shot six other Palestinians, including one who suffered serious wounds, and caused at least three to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation. The soldiers also abducted eight Palestinians

The PRCS added that the soldiers attacked one of its ambulances and stopped medics while rushing to provide aid to wounded Palestinians.

The five slain Palestinians have been identified as Rafat ًWa’el Awadat, 21, and his brother Ibrahim, 27, Adham Majdi Awadat, 22, Tha’er Khaled Awadat, 27, and Malek Lafi, 22.

The soldiers took the five men’s corpses away after refusing to allow Palestinian medics to take them.

The Palestinian Health Ministry described the attack as a “slaughter” and said three of the wounded were not resistance fighters, including the one who suffered life-threatening wounds.

The army took the corpses of the slain Palestinians after refusing to allow Palestinian medics to approach them.

Palestinian sources have confirmed that the soldiers abducted eight Palestinians, including siblings, during the offensive and identified them as Shaker Amarna, Mohammad Riyad Oweidat, Abdul-Hafeth Wa’el Oweidat, Abdul-Hafeth Fakhr Oweidat, and his brother, Mohammad, Ehab Mohammad Hmeidat and his brother Ahmad.

The army acknowledged that its soldiers killed the five Palestinian fighters and said it invaded the refugee camp to capture Hamas fighters suspected of firing at a restaurant in the illegal Vered Yeriho settlement on January 27. It claimed the soldiers spotted one of the Palestinians suspected of involvement in the shooting before he fled while firing at them, leading to a pursuit ending at a building in a refugee camp where the fighters were hiding, resulting in an exchange of fire.

On Tuesday, several Israeli armored military vehicles invaded Nablus, leading to protests before the soldiers fired a barrage of live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades, reported imemc.

In a brief statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the soldiers killed Hamza Amjad Al-Ashqar, 17, from Askar Al-Jadid refugee camp in Nablus, after shooting him with a live round in the face.

The soldiers shot the child when the military vehicles were withdrawing from the Housing Projects area in Nablus.

In related news, the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, said its fighters managed to down and take possession of an Israeli military drone during the military’s invasion of Nablus.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that the army has killed 42 Palestinians, including nine children and one woman, since the beginning of this year.

Tension mounted across the Palestinian territories following an Israeli military incursion in the West Bank city of Jenin last week that left 10 Palestinians dead. Seven Israelis were also killed in a shooting attack in occupied East Jerusalem.

[Photo: Hamza Amjad Al-Ashqar, 17, from Askar Al-Jadid refugee camp in Nablus, killed by Israeli forces on 7 February. Photo by imemc.org]

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