At least four Palestinians were killed and nineteen wounded — three critically — in an attack by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a brief statement. Three people were killed in the city of Nablus, where a new group of local militants operates. The ministry announced later in the night that another Palestinian had been killed by Israeli fire, this time in Ramallah, the seat of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the central West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is establishing “urgent contacts to end this aggression against our people” in Nablus, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudayna said in a statement.
The Israeli army did not comment on the assessment, but confirmed that it carried out a wide-ranging operation with police and intelligence against the “headquarters and a workshop for the manufacture of weapons” of a new group of Palestinian militants called “The Pit to the Lions”. “in the old city of Nablus. During the operation, “several armed suspects were shot dead,” the military said.
Anti-Israeli activities by “Lion’s Den”.
In recent weeks, a group of young Palestinian militants – some affiliated with mainstream groups such as Fatah, Hamas or Islamic Jihad and some not – have begun carrying out anti-Israel operations from Nablus, a key city in the northern occupied West Bank.
In tribute to Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a young fighter named “Aran al-Ossoud”, French for “Aran al-Ossoud”, Arabic for “Lion’s Pit”, a young fighter known as the “Lion of Nablus” and baptized in early August It is notable that he was killed by Israeli forces. It claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that its fighters were “engaged in violent clashes” with Israeli forces in Nablus and threatened to retaliate against Israel “against these crimes.”
In the process, the Israeli military tightened the noose over Nablus, setting up checkpoints to identify those who left the city and constantly scanning its skies with surveillance drones. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the “Lions Den” fighter, Tamar al-Ghilani, was killed by an “explosion” in the old city of Nablus, which his movement and the Israeli press attributed to a remotely activated bomb. The Israeli military has not commented on the claims.
Amnesty urges ICC to investigate war crimes
Israeli soldiers have stepped up operations in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by the Jewish state since 1967, particularly in the militant group’s strongholds of Nablus and Jenin, following deadly anti-Israel attacks. From March. These attacks, often interspersed with clashes with Palestinian civilians, have left more than a hundred dead on the Palestinian side, the highest toll in the West Bank in nearly seven years, according to the UN. Since the beginning of this month, 23 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed, according to a report established by AFP.
Separately, human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into possible “war crimes” committed by Israeli and Palestinian militants during the August escalation in the Gaza Strip.
read more: A Palestinian wounded by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank died in a tense atmosphere
At least 49 Palestinians, including militants but civilians and children, died between August 5 and 7 in clashes between the Israeli army and the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, politically and geographically. .
The organization investigated three incidents in particular, two by Israeli forces and one by Palestinian units. “The three deadly attacks we investigated should be investigated as war crimes; “Victims of unlawful attacks and their loved ones must seek justice and reparation,” Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said on Tuesday.