Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank killed four Palestinians and wounded nearly 20 others, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The ministry said in a brief statement that three were killed and 19 wounded, three seriously, by Israeli fire during an airstrike on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. It later announced that another Palestinian had been killed by Israeli fire, this time in Ramallah, the seat of Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in the central West Bank.
One of the men who died was unarmed, according to Palestinian health and security officials. In a joint statement with police and intelligence agencies, the Israeli military confirmed it had carried out a large-scale overnight operation in Nablus, raiding “a sheltered apartment… which served as a headquarters and explosives manufacturing site”. “The site was used by the main operatives of the ‘Lion’s Den’ terrorist group,” the statement said, referring to a new group of young Palestinian fighters who have been carrying out anti-Israeli operations in Nablus in recent weeks.
“Several armed suspects were hit during the activity and Palestinian reports indicate multiple injuries.” Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said Abbas’ office had asked the US for help in ending the Israeli campaign. “All this will have dangerous and destructive consequences,” Abu Rudeineh said on Palestine TV. A Palestinian shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank
Nablus, a large city in the northern West Bank, has been a hotbed of violence since Israel launched a crackdown on the West Bank in March in response to a series of attacks by Palestinians in Israel. In recent weeks, a group of young Palestinian fighters – some affiliated with mainstream groups such as Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have been conducting anti-Israeli operations from there.
A new group, called Areen al-Ossoud – or The Lion’s Den – has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an Israeli soldier two weeks ago in the occupied West Bank. The leader, Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, nicknamed the Lion of Nablus, was known for encouraging youth before he was shot by Israeli forces in August. Since then, he has become a folk hero for Palestinians on social media. As a result, the Israeli military has tightened its grip on Nablus, setting up checks to identify people leaving the city and constantly scanning the skies above with surveillance drones.
On Saturday night, a Day of the Lions fighter, Tamer al-Kilani, was killed in the Old City of Nablus in an explosion that the group and the Israeli press attributed to a bomb remotely activated by the Israeli military. The military has not commented on the claims. After the operation, Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that its “fighters were involved in violent clashes” with Israeli forces in Nablus and threatened Israel with retaliation “against these crimes” there.
Israel’s months-long military campaign in the northern West Bank has seen almost nightly confrontations between Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and local militias in the cities of Jenin and Nablus. The operation, codenamed Breakwater, is one of the largest non-war operations of the past decade. More than 115 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed this year, the worst toll in the West Bank in nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.
The IDF says Palestinian gun attacks targeting Israeli settlers and the military have tripled compared to last year, rising to 170 by September. Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate possible war crimes committed in August by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during deadly fighting in Gaza. 31 civilians were among 49 Palestinians killed in the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip during the three-day conflict. The London-based organization urged the ICC to “expeditiously investigate any apparent war crimes committed during the August 2022 Israeli offensive” in the Palestinian enclave.
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