West Bank firefight, three Palestinian fighters killed
Mayada, the mother of Mohammad Dabik, one of three fighters who were killed by Israeli troops during a clash in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Three Palestinian fighters were shot dead before dawn on Sunday in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers near Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.
This new deadly incident comes as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have been sucked into a new inextricable spiral of violence since the inauguration at the end of December of one of the most right-wing governments in the history of history. Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The three Palestinians were identified as Mohammad Dabik, Oudai Shami and Mohammad Shami aged 18, 22 and 24 respectively, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
They were members of the Den of Lions, according to this armed group that emerged in 2022 in Nablus.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be sucked into a new inextricable spiral. In November, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian rioters during clashes in the occupied West Bank. (File photo)
The versions of the Israeli army and the Den of Lions agree that a group of Palestinian fighters attacked soldiers in area B (under Israeli security control) at the Surra-Jit checkpoint, in west of the large city of Nablus, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.
This military post controls access between Nablus and the Jewish settlement of Kedumim.
The Israeli army, which was holding the bodies of the three slain assailants at midday, said a fourth man had surrendered and been arrested for questioning.
No Israeli soldier was injured, according to the army, whose statement published photos of the weapons it said were used by the downed Palestinians: three M16 submachine guns with multiple rounds of ammunition and a pistol. /p>
The northern West Bank, where the Israeli army has been increasing operations for nearly a year, is a hotbed of violence.
The north of the occupied West Bank is experiencing an upsurge in violence. (File photo)
Praising the action of the soldiers who eliminated three terrorists, Mr. Netanyahu repeated before the Council of Ministers his leitmotif according to which the principle is simple :
“Anyone who tries to attack us or attacks us will pay the price. »
— Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
We will continue to live and build, here in Samaria [name, in the Bible, of the region corresponding more or less to the north of the present-day West Bank] and throughout the region, the murdering Palestinian Authority will not discourage us. not, said an administrative official for Jewish settlements in this area, Yossi Dagan, in a challenge calling for an immediate end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank launched in February by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres .
Each new settlement is one more obstacle on the road to peace. All settlement activity is illegal under international law and must end, Mr. Guterres said on February 22, while saying that inciting violence is a dead end and that nothing justifies terrorism.
In a statement issued in response to the Jit skirmish, Islamic Jihad said Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation remains unwavering, regardless of the sacrifices.
The blood of the three Jit dead will be a curse for the occupiers and will fuel a new great Intifada [uprising] in the West Bank, said Hamas, another Palestinian Islamist movement.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 81 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians, including minors), 12 civilians (including three minors) and one Israeli policeman , as well as a Ukrainian woman, according to an AFP count compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
On Friday, two Palestinians (a 16-year-old throwing a Molotov cocktail and a young man in his twenties armed with knives and explosive devices, according to the army) had been killed in the West Bank, the first by soldiers, the second by a Jewish settler.
The day before, on the first evening of the Israeli weekend, a member of the armed wing of Hamas who had infiltrated Israeli territory had opened fire on a cafe in right in the center of Tel-Aviv, injuring three.
Repeated appeals from the UN and numerous foreign chancelleries to reducing tensions with a view to a return to calm before the start, at the end of March, of Ramadan, during which this year Passover takes place (early April), have had no effect until the end of March. now.
