The death toll of the Israeli army raid into the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday rose to nine and the number of wounded to 20, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. It said that Israeli nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli army gunfire and 20 others were wounded, including four seriously wounded, during the violent raid into the city and neighboring refugee camp.
Thousands participating in the funeral of the nine Palestinians killed in Jenin by the occupation army (Photo: WAFA)
The fatalities included an elderly woman, identified as Magda Obaid, 60. Two of the slain youths were identified as Saeb Issam Mahmoud Izreiqi, 24, and Izzidin Yassin Salahat, 26. The Ministry pointed that all the 16 casualties, including a child, sustained gunshot wounds in the chest, shoulders, abdomen and lower extremities. During the raid, the soldiers completely destroyed the Jenin Camp Club.
The heavily-armed soldiers opened fire towards local youths attempting to block their entry, wounding seven, including one seriously wounded by live ammunition in the chest and thigh. The army force disconnected the power supply to the camp, denied paramedics and reporter access to it and directly opened fire on an ambulance.
Health Minister, Mai al-Kaileh, stated Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) first emergency medical workers at the scene could not evacuate the wounded as Israeli soldiers restricted access to the camp and hampered ambulances from fetching and transferring the casualties. Al-Kaileh added that the occupation forces fired gas bombs toward the pediatric section of Jenin Government Hospital, causing suffocation cases from gas inhalation among Palestinians, including mothers and children.
She said that she demanded an urgent meeting with the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to bring an end to the Israeli aggression, save the lives of Palestinians and prevent further bloodshed while urging international human rights organizations to urgently intervene to help rein in Israeli army practices.
On Thursday evening a Palestinian youth has been shot and killed during confrontations with Israeli forces in the town of al-Ram, north of the occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The Ministry said that Yousef Yahya Muheisen, 22, was shot by the Israeli soldiers during the confrontations that erupted between Israeli forces and protestors who went on a march protesting Israel’s killing of nine Palestinians in Jenin earlier today.
Muheisen becomes the 10th Palestinian killed by Israeli forces today following an aggressive assault on Jenin city and camp, which killed nine Palestinians and left dozens of others injures earlier. With the killing of the 10 Palestinians today, the number of Palestinians that Israel has killed since the beginning of 2023 rises to 30.
Hadash-Ta’al parliamentary faction responded to the events in Jenin saying, “This is a murderous massacre that joins the fact that 30 Palestinians have been killed by the occupation forces since the beginning of the year,” adding that “the current government is competing with its predecessor over who is more lethal,” and called for international intervention to “stop the bloodshed.”
According MK Ayman Odeh, leader of the Hadash-Ta’al in the Knesset, tweeted, “The occupation continues to claim victims. But in the government the fascists are calm, they know that even in the liberal opposition there are racists who are not interested in the occupation and the Palestinians.” “The fight for democracy must also and above all be a fight against the occupation!” he added referring to protests against the new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history.
MK Ofer Cassif said during a demonstration held in Haifa on Thursday evening, “While the government of blood, race and tears turns Israel proper into a fascist dictatorship, it wages a campaign of destruction and massacre in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Only a stupor will not see the connection. This Saturday we’ll protest against the occupation and the massacre, and against the fascistic dictatorship. The ongoing massacre in the occupied territories is political cynicism aimed at breaking the protest against the coup d’état and is intended to prepare an infrastructure for justifying another Nakba.”
“This is the malicious government’s plan: To massacre the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories and to plunder the Arab citizens inside the Green Line using the National Guard of the Ben Gvir gang. We will not let them do so,” he added.
On Thursday evening, MK Cassif participated in a demonstration in Haifa organized by Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), during which he waved a Palestinian flag. Several protests were held in Haifa, Nazareth and other Arab cities in Northern Israel. The Haifa police chief demanded that Cassif remove the flag, and even resorted to using force, but Cassif insisted on his right to raise the flag and read to the officers the instructions of Attorney General regarding the flag. The statement also said that the police forces withdrew and the dozens of activists continued the demonstration.
In this context, MK Cassif said, “The Palestinian flag is a flag that symbolizes the just struggle for liberation and freedom, and it is the duty of freedom seekers to express solidarity with it. I will continue to wave the flag and demonstrate against the occupation for the sake of a just peace between the two peoples.”
