[News] Israel kills five in Jericho raid

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-kills-five-jericho-raid>
Israel kills five in Jericho raid

Maureen Clare Murphy
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy> - 7 February
2023
------------------------------

Hamas supporters in Gaza City rally in favor of resistance against the
occupation following a deadly raid in Jericho, 6 February.
APA images

Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians during a raid in Aqabat
Jabr refugee camp outside of the West Bank city of Jericho on Monday.

The raid comes less than two weeks after Israeli forces killed nine
Palestinians
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-bloodbath-jenin-kills-9-palestinians>
during a similar operation targeting armed resistance activists in Jenin
refugee camp. A tenth Palestinian died from his injuries days later.

The Jericho area of the West Bank’s Jordan Valley has been under siege for
more than a week following an attempted shooting attack at a restaurant
near Jericho frequented by settlers in late January.
According to
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-least-5-gunmen-killed-as-idf-targets-west-bank-terror-attack-cell-officials-say/>
Israeli media, two armed Palestinians fled towards Jericho after one of
them opened fire in the restaurant. The gun jammed after a single shot was
fired.

Israeli forces stormed
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/4/five-injured-in-israeli-raid-on-refugee-camp>
Aqabat Jabr camp on Saturday and fired an anti-tank guided missile at a
building and used live fire and tear gas, injuring at least 13
Palestinians, during the five-hour raid in pursuit of the two men.

Israeli media, citing the military, said that occupation forces had “failed
to apprehend the pair” during Saturday’s raid.

The military claimed that the two involved in the attempted attack on the
restaurant were among five killed in a firefight during Monday’s early
morning raid.

The slain Palestinians were identified
<https://www.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/65312> as Raafat Uweidat, 21, Ibrahim
Wael Uweidat, 27, Malik Awni Lafi, 22, Adham Majdi Uweidat, 22, and Thaer
Uweidat, 28.

Israel is withholding their bodies so that they may be used as bargaining
chips in future negotiations – a violation of international law approved
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-court-approves-use-palestinian-bodies-bargaining-chips>
by the state’s highest court.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that six people were injured, one
of them seriously, during the raid. Occupation forces impeded the work of
medics and attacked an ambulance, according to the group.

Israeli forces arrested eight people during Monday’s raid.
Children “traumatized” in Jenin raid

Additional details have emerged regarding the Israeli military’s occupation
of a Palestinian family’s home during its 26 January raid in Jenin refugee
camp.

Muhammad Abu al-Hayja told CNN
<https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/04/middleeast/israeli-raid-jenin-residents-intl-cmd/index.html>
that he and his wife and their two daughters, both under the age of 3, were
sleeping when Israeli soldiers rammed down their door.

Abu al-Hayja was handcuffed and taken to his bathroom and ordered to kneel
down with a towel wrapped around his head as a blindfold.
The family lay on the floor for more than three hours as Israeli soldiers
used multiple rooms in their home to fire at Palestinian fighters nearby,
who in turn shot into the apartment.

Adam Bouloukos, the West Bank director of UNRWA, the UN agency for
Palestine refugees, told CNN that Abu al-Hayja’s daughters “were noticeably
traumatized.”

He said “this kind of invasion violates not only international law but
common decency.”

Israeli police, soldiers and settlers have killed more than 40 Palestinians
in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, including seven children.

A Palestinian gunman killed seven people in a Jerusalem settlement on 27
January before being shot dead by police.

On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Abdullah Qalalweh, 26, at
Huwwara checkpoint near the northern West Bank – a frequent flashpoint of
deadly occupation violence.

The Israeli military claimed that Qalalweh, who was unarmed, had “attempted
to take over the gun of an Israeli soldier before he was shot,” *Middle
East Eye* reported
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/palestinians-mourn-death-26-year-old-abdullah-qalalweh>
.

Israeli authorities made a similar claim
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-forces-kill-two-palestinians-west-bank>
in the shooting death of Ahmad Kahlah at a checkpoint last month, only to
later admit in a report leaked to the media that his killing was
unjustified.
Refugees killed in earthquake

Meanwhile, nearly two dozen Palestinians in Syria were killed in a massive
earthquake that claimed the lives of thousands in the region, according to
<https://www.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/65300> the Palestinian state news agency
WAFA.

Nearly 4,000 people were reported killed as a result of the magnitude 7.8
earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria and was felt in countries beyond. A
second and nearly equally strong aftershock struck several hours later.

A UN official warned
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/06/world/turkey-earthquake/fa27ff6a-1005-53ef-8017-509b7944b511>
that the death toll could increase eight-fold while the world body said
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/05/world/turkey-earthquake/un-relief-efforts-are-stymied-by-the-quakes-destruction>
that the scale of the destruction was hampering the provision of
humanitarian aid.

In Turkey, rescue efforts were impeded by blizzard conditions in some
areas, while thousands of survivors were staying out in the cold with
little or no food, warmth or shelter or living in their cars for fear that
damaged buildings could collapse due to aftershocks.

Nearly three million people in northwestern Syria, near the epicenter of
the earthquake in southeastern Turkey, were displaced during the war in
Syria and already depend on aid for survival.

A doctor in the area told the BBC that hospitals were overwhelmed and
medical personnel were having to decide who they would treat and who they
would have to let die due to the severe lack of staff and supplies.

A Palestinian family of five, including three children, were reported to
have been killed by the earthquake in Turkey.
UNRWA schools in Syria were serving as shelters
<https://twitter.com/TamaraAlrifai/status/1622662652982960146> for
Palestinian refugees from Latakia camp, where three homes collapsed.

The agency said
<https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/four-palestine-refugee-children-syria-among-those-perished-massive>
that four Palestinian refugee children were killed in the disaster. Two of
the children were trapped under a house in Latakia along with their
parents, who died with them.

UNRWA added that coastal Latakia and Nairab, near Aleppo, were the most
affected among the agency’s 12 camps in the country.
Around 440,000 Palestinian refugees live in Syria and UNRWA camps were
badly affected during the decade-long war in the country.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said
<https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/news-releases/unrwa-commissioner-general-rehabilitating-unrwa-facilities-syria-top-priority>
last month that rehabilitating the agency’s facilities in Syria was a top
priority.

“I was shocked by the level of destruction of houses and UNRWA premises in
some Palestine refugee camps in Syria,” Lazzarini said after visiting the
country in January.

“The near-total destruction of places such as Yarmouk and Ein el Tal caused
unimaginable suffering,” he added.

The chronically underfunded agency launched a $1.6 billion appeal
<https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/news-releases/unrwa-appeals-us-16-billion-health-education-and-other-basic-services>
in January for health, education and other basic services for Palestinian
refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Monday’s disastrous earthquake in Syria will only exacerbate the dire needs
of Palestinians in the country, one of the most vulnerable communities in
the region.
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