[News] Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinians in 'merciless' Nablus raid

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-nablus-raid-kill-wreak-havoc>
Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinians in 'merciless' Nablus raid
By Fayha Shalash in Ramallah, occupied Palestine
February 22, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Israeli <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> forces killed 11
Palestinians <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine>, including
a child and three elderly people, and wounded more than 100 others on
Wednesday during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

More than 60 Israeli military vehicles stormed Nablus at around 10am local
time after an undercover force was spotted in the historic Old City,
eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye.

Nablus resident Nabeela Suliman was walking in a market with her daughter
when she heard the sounds of explosions and people started shouting that a
major Israeli incursion had started.

'With every incursion the Israeli soldiers start shooting mercilessly
towards anyone who moves'

*– Ibtihal Mansour, eyewitness*

"It was very scary... We could hear the sounds of explosions and people
screaming in the street, and many of us started crying and praying to God
to protect the city and its residents," Suliman told MEE.

The raid, which lasted for four hours, focused on a building in the city
that reportedly housed Palestinian resistance fighters.

Israeli forces besieged the house and fired missiles at the building, while
Israeli snipers were seen stationed in the surrounding area. A military
helicopter was also spotted flying over the city.

Palestinian media said two fighters - Hussam Bassam Aslim, 24, and Mohammed
Omar Abu Bakr, 23 - were inside the house and refused to surrender.

In an alleged recording by Aslim that was shared on social media after the
raid started, he is purportedly heard saying: "We're in trouble, but we
won't surrender ourselves. We won't hand over our weapons. I'll die as a
martyr. Keep carrying weapons after us."

The Israeli military confirmed it conducted an operation in Nablus to
arrest three people for allegedly planning and carrying out attacks against
Israeli targets in recent months. It added that it shot back when coming
under fire and after people threw explosives and Molotov cocktails towards
troops.

The Lions' Den armed group said in a statement via its Telegram page that
its fighters engaged Israeli forces in armed clashes alongside other armed
groups in the city, including the "Balata Brigade" and the
"Nablus Brigade".

According to the Palestinian health ministry, 10 people were killed in the
raid. The Lions' Den said six of them, including Aslim and Abu Bakr, were
fighters.

The pair are affiliated with the Lions' Den, which has grown in prominence
over the past year as deadly Israeli crackdowns in the occupied West Bank
have intensified.

The other nine dead named by the ministry are Adnan Sabe Baara, 72, Anan
Shawkat Enab, 66, Abd el-Aziz al-Ashqar, 61, Mohammad Farid Shaban, 16,
Tamer Nimr Minwai, 33, Mohamed Khaled Anbousi, 25, Mosaab Muneer Owais, 26,
Waleed Riad Dakheel, 23, and Jaser Jameel Qenaer, 23.

'The [Palestinian resistance's]... patience is wearing thin'

*– Abu Obaida, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades' spokesman*

The deadly raid has prompted a rare reaction from Abu Obaida, the spokesman
for Hamas' armed wing the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who tends to make
public statements only at a time of war.

"The Palestinian resistance in Gaza is closely monitoring the Israeli
occupation's repeated crimes against the Palestinian people in the occupied
West Bank and its patience is wearing thin," Abu Obaida said.

Palestinian factions strongly condemned the raid, calling it a "barbaric
massacre", and said they held Israel responsible for the consequences.
'Shooting mercilessly'

Eyewitness Ibtihal Mansour said that once the undercover force was spotted
in the city, the military immediately sent reinforcements and started
firing live bullets, teargas and sound bombs.

Suliman told MEE she quickly hid in a shop when Israeli forces began firing
live rounds. Dozens of Palestinians choked on the teargas, most of them
women and children, but ambulance crews were blocked from reaching them,
she added.

Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including a child and two elderly
people, and wounded more than 100 others on Wednesday during a military
raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. pic.twitter.com/5ieoCxs6G7
<https://t.co/5ieoCxs6G7>
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 22, 2023
<https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1628405655639048192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

“The Israeli incursion took place at peak time when the area was most
crowded as it is located in the centre of the city, and is considered the
living nerve of old Nablus,” Mansour said.

Mansour painted a shocking picture of what unfolded on the ground, with the
bodies of the wounded and dead strewn across the street, their wounds
concentrated on the upper half of their body, mainly the head and chest.
First aid responders were unable to approach wounded people lying in the
street, with many bleeding out, she added.

“My three children are in school and I cannot reach them to take them home.
I am very worried about them, because with every incursion the Israeli
soldiers start shooting mercilessly towards anyone who moves,” Mansour
said, in tears.

[image: Palestinian youths hurl paint and rocks at an Israeli military
vehicle during a raid in Nablus on 22 February 2023 (Reuters)]
Palestinian youths hurl paint and rocks at an Israeli military vehicle
during a raid in Nablus on 22 February 2023 (Reuters)

A similar Israeli raid in neighbouring city Jenin took place late last
month, in which 10 Palestinians were killed
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-israel-thousands-march-deadly-jenin-attack>.
Many Palestinians say such large operations during the day are reminiscent
of Israeli violence during the Second Intifada
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/second-intifada>.

A day after the Jenin raid, a Palestinian man shot and killed
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/east-jerusalem-attack-shooting-israelis-shooter-dead-media-says>
seven Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces have killed 59 Palestinians this year, at a rate of more
than one fatality per day. It follows an increase in violence recorded in
2022, with at least 167 Palestinians
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-west-bank-deadliest-year-second-intifada>
killed
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest death toll in those
territories in a single year since the Second Intifada.

Meanwhile, Palestinians killed 30 Israelis last year and 10 this year.

UN experts previously condemned
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/israel-un-experts-condemn-record-year-israeli-violence-occupied-west-bank#:~:text=At%20least%20two%20Palestinians%20were,occupied%20West%20Bank%20in%202022.>
Israel
for the record levels of violence in 2022 and warned that an even higher
number of casualties could be recorded this year.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, William Burns, warned
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-cia-warns-tensions-resemble-intifada>
earlier this month that current tensions bear an "unhappy resemblance" to
the Second Intifada and efforts to prevent "explosions of violence" are a
challenge.
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