Tuesday marked the latest in a string of fatal military assaults carried out in broad daylight by Israeli troops. They broke into a refugee camp in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank and killed at least six Palestinians.
Israel claimed that troops killed a Hamas member who had been involved in the murder of two Israeli brothers earlier this month. According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least five additional Palestinian males were murdered, and more than 20 others were injured.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation to find the Palestinian shooter believed to have murdered two Israeli brothers as they passed through the West Bank town of Huwara last week, which resulted in a deadly fire battle breaking out in the densely populated refugee camp on Jenin’s western borders.
Israeli settlers who were illegally residing in the area retaliated violently in the wake of that incident. Later that day, 400 individuals stormed Huwara and three nearby towns, destroying dozens of homes and businesses, setting hundreds of cars on fire, and killing one man.
People on both sides of the green line were shocked by the rampage, which at its scope was the worst single instance of settler violence against Palestinians ever documented. It also prompted international condemnation.
Two Israeli drones were also downed in Jenin during the battle. It was unclear whether they had been shot down or broken down.
The raid was referred described as “a massacre” by the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh, who also urged the Biden administration to take additional action to halt Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities.
Israel’s prime leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, lauded his nation’s military personnel.
In the centre of the murderers’ den, “our brave warriors performed surgical operations,” he claimed. “I praise them and extend recovery wishes to the wounded from among our forces. Whoever hurts us, his blood is on his head, as I repeat over and over again.”
