Israeli forces killed two 13-year-old Palestinian children in West Bank, broke 350 ceasefire violations in Gaza
By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
WEST BANK
Two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli army gunfire in two separate incidents on Friday in the occupied West Bank.
The first victim was 13-year-old Ayman Nassar al-Himouni, who was fatally shot while he was visiting relatives in the Jabal Jawhar area, south of Hebron, striking him in the chest. He was rushed by Red Crescent medics , where he succumbed to his wounds shortly after.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that its teams transported the child, who died from injuries sustained by Israeli army fire in Hebron’s Jabal Juhar neighborhood, to Mohammad Ali Al-Mohtaseb Hospital.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that al-Haimouni was killed by Israeli forces’ bullets, following clashes in the area.
Separately, 13-year-old Rimas Omar Amori was killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed her death, with witnesses saying she was shot in the abdomen and exited through her back by Israeli forces’ gunfire and killed in front of her family’s home while Israeli forces were stationed nearby. She was transferred to Jenin Governmental Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after.
Meanwhile, Palestinian foreign ministry has condemned Netanyahu’s visit to the Tulkarem refugee camp in the north of the West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry said Netanyahu and a group of soldiers “broke into a house” to use it as a command centre.
Israeli occupation forces Friday evening deployed additional reinforcements in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm and the nearby refugee camps, according to WAFA correspondent.
She said that the occupying forces intensified their deployments on the city streets and junctions, particularly Nablus Street, Shweika Circle and the Thabet Thabet Government Hospital Street, setting up checkpoints, stopping vehicles, checking passengers’ ID cards, and assaulting some of them.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that PRCS crews transferred a young man to a hospital after Israeli soldiers assaulted the latter in the northern neighborhood of the city.
This came as Israel occupation forces continued to besiege the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, deploying patrols on streets and in neighborhoods and conducting house-to-house raids while intensively firing gunfire.
A Palestinian child was injured on Friday evening by rubber-coated metal bullets, and dozens of others suffocated by tear gas during confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, according to a local activist.
The coordinator of the popular resistance committee in the village of Kafr Qaddum, Murad Shtawi, reported that confrontations erupted between dozens of Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in the said village.
Forces attacked the youths with rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters, shooting and injuring a 17-year-old teenager in the leg. Dozens of others suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
A number of Palestinians Friday suffocated in an Israeli army raid in Qusra town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to an anti-colonial settlement activist.
Fuad Hasan said that Israeli occupation forces barged their way into the town and fired barrages of gunfire and tear gas bombs, causing a number of Palestinians to suffocate from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Meanwhile, several others suffocated due to tear gas fired by the occupying forces in the nearby town of Yatma.
Ahmad Snubar, head of Yatma Village Council, said that a convoy of army vehicles stormed the village, where soldiers fired barrages of live ammunition and tear gas bombs, causing several to suffocate.
Israeli occupation forces Friday detained at least nine Palestinians from various parts of the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that the occupying forces rounded up a shepherd while the latter was grazing his sheep in Khallet Makhoul community in the northern Jordan Valley.
Meanwhile, the occupying forces showed up at a house in southern Hebron City, broke inside, conducted a thorough search, and eventually detained an occupant.
The heavily armed soldiers ransacked several houses in the southern part of the city as well as in Bani Naim town, east of Hebron, turning them upside down.
In the Ramallah governorate, the sources confirmed a raid in the Jalazone refugee camp, resulting in the detention of two Palestinians.
The occupying forces showed up at a store in Silwad town, east of Ramallah, and rounded up four residents; two fathers along with their sons.
The occupation forces barged their way into Surda town, north of Ramallah, and rearrested a former prisoner.
Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to a vehicle and vandalized property Wednesday night east of the town of Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources. The settlers also scrawled racist and provocative anti-Arab graffiti in the area.
Osama Makhamra, a local media activist, told WAFA that the settlers infiltrated the home of Majed al-Dababsa, a Palestinian resident, in the Abu Shaban area east of Yatta on Thursday night. They torched his vehicle and scrawled racist slogans against Palestinians and Arabs on the walls.
Makhamra added that this region has been subjected to numerous attacks by Israeli settlers and army, including the demolition of several homes and a school, as well as the harassment of shepherds. Crops have also been destroyed.
In a related incident, Makhamra pointed out that today, a group of settlers gathered near the adjacent Carmel settlement, where they blocked the gate leading to the surrounding Palestinian villages and Bedouin communities, preventing locals from passing through.
Other Israeli settlers Friday vandalized an agricultural shed and land in Kafr Qaddum village, east of the occupied West Bank city of Qalqiliya, according to local sources.
They said that settlers sneaked their way into the northern outskirts of the village near the colony of Kedumim and set fire to an agricultural shed belonging to Aqba Obeid.
They added that the assailants vandalized an olive orchard and agricultural equipment belonging to Musa Obeid.
For the second consecutive month, the Israeli military has been conducting operations in northern West Bank refugee camps, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.
The UN on Friday expressed concern over Israeli forces’ prolonged military operations in the occupied West Bank, marking the “longest” such offensives since the early 2000s.
“In the West Bank, OCHA is continuing to monitor the situation and remains concerned by Israeli forces’ ongoing operations in the north—the longest there since the early 2000s,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.
Citing data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Dujarric said that “settler violence also continues,” with the UN rights organization documenting 34 incidents between Feb. 11 and 17—an average of almost five per day— involving illegal Israeli settlers.
“In one such incident, Israeli settlers severed agricultural water pipes in Tulkarm governorate, affecting the livelihoods of a dozen Palestinian farmers,” he said.
He also reported that nearly 40 Palestinians were displaced near Al Maniya village in Bethlehem following “recurrent attacks from Israeli settlers over the past year.”
Voicing concerns over restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on the Palestinian movement, Dujarric warned that these measures are impacting the daily lives of Palestinians.
According to OCHA, nearly 2,300 Palestinians, including almost 1,100 children, have been displaced across the occupied West Bank since the start of 2023 due to “heightened settler violence and access restrictions.”
GAZA
The head of the government media office in Gaza announced on Friday that over 350 violations of the Jan. 15 ceasefire agreement by Israel have been recorded.
In a statement, Ismail al-Thawabteh said: “The Israeli occupation has violated the ceasefire agreement more than 350 times since it was signed, clearly demonstrating its continued breach of commitments and its defiance of the international community.”
Since the start of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has killed 92 Palestinians and injured 822 others in direct attacks, Gaza’s Director-General of Health Munir Al-Barsh said on Feb. 11.
Further violations include Israeli incursions into border areas east of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,319 Palestinian have been killed by Israel’s bombings on Gaza, while 111,749 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
The Central Emergency Committee in Rafah in the southern part of Gaza reported continued Israeli army movements in the central and western parts of the city in recent days.
US President Donald Trump says he will “recommend” his plan to “take over” Gaza and displace Palestinians, rather than impose it, amid continued opposition from Palestinian leaders and Arab states.
LEBANON
The Israeli army launched airstrikes early Friday on sites along the Syria-Lebanon border, claiming that Hezbollah was using them to transfer weapons into Lebanon.
In a statement, the Israeli army alleged: “Our fighter jets struck transport routes along the Syrian-Lebanese border, which Hezbollah has been using in an attempt to smuggle weaponry into Lebanon.”
The army added that “such actions by Hezbollah violate the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
The latest escalation comes after a fragile ceasefire took place in Lebanon on Nov. 27, 2024, ending months of mutual shelling between Israel and the Hezbollah group that escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has committed nearly 1,000 violations, killing and injuring dozens in Lebanon, including women and children.
SYRIA
The Israeli army launched an attack on the central Syrian city of Homs, the Israel Hayom daily reported late Thursday.
The newspaper cited unnamed official Israeli sources as saying that the army confirmed carrying out the strike.
There has been no official confirmation from either the Israeli army or the Syrian side regarding the attack.
[Photo: Displaced Palestinians receive food, distributed by a charity organization, as they also struggle with shortage of food and with cold weather and rain in Gaza City, Gaza on February 21, 2025. Photojournalist: Ashraf Amra/AA]
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