JENIN, Palestinian Territories — Israeli
occupation forces again killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Jenin
Wednesday
The Palestinian health ministry identified the man
killed as Ahmad Massad, 18, from Burqin village in the north of the occupied
West Bank. He was shot in the head, a hospital official told the official
Palestinian news agency WAFA.
اضافة اعلان
Israeli forces said that during the “operation” at
Jenin’s refugee camp, troops used “live ammunition”, adding that 12 people were
arrested in the overnight raids at several West Bank locations. The Palestinian
Prisoner’s Club group put the number of arrests at 17.
More than a thousand people gathered for Massad’s
funeral in Burqin, and masked fighters fired volleys into the air as his body
was taken from his family home.
A band with the logo of the Palestinian armed
movement Islamic Jihad was wrapped around his forehead.
Israeli occupation forces have stepped up operations
in recent weeks in the West Bank — particularly around Jenin.
Raad Hazem — who killed three Israelis in a shooting
spree in a Tel Aviv nightlife district last month, before being shot dead after
a massive man-hunt — hailed from Jenin’s refugee camp.
Gunman’s home targeted
During the overnight operation, Israel said it also delivered a
demolition notice to Hazem’s family home.
The destruction
of assailants’ homes is a common Israeli practice, and condemned by critics as
an illegal form of collective punishment.
The Tel Aviv
shooter’s father Fathi Hazem and brother Hamam are both wanted by Israel.
Hours after the
demolition notice was handed over, the father appeared in a video that then
circulated widely in Palestinian media.
He accused
Israel of labelling all Palestinian youths as “terrorists” and told a small
crowd, speaking at an unknown location, that “we will defeat them, God willing,
and soon”.
The family had
no prior knowledge of Raad’s plans for the Tel Aviv attack, Hamam Hazem told
AFP earlier this month.
‘Escalate the
resistance’
Violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians is common in the West
Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Violence has
intensified in the territory and in Israel, at a time the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover overlapped this month.
A total of 26
Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have been killed by Israeli occupation
forces since March 22.
Massad’s death
follows that of another Palestinian killed Tuesday, when Israeli forces stormed
a West Bank refugee camp near Jericho.
Violent clashes
have also rocked the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem,
sparking fears of another conflict after last year’s 11-day Israeli war on the
Gaza Strip.
Following the
Israeli violence at Al-Aqsa, there was isolated rocket fire towards Israel from
the Gaza Strip, resulting in Israeli reprisals on targets in the strip.
Palestinians
have been angered by an uptick in Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa complex, Islam’s
third-holiest site. It is also Judaism’s holiest place and known to Jews as the
Temple Mount.
In an apparent
attempt to ease tensions, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Sunday that Israel
was committed to the “status quo” at Al-Aqsa, meaning an adherence to
long-standing convention allowing Jews to visit the complex but not pray there.
Concerns of
fresh violence at Al-Aqsa are building, though, ahead of Friday prayers at the
complex, with the end of Ramadan approaching in early May.
The Palestinian
armed movement Islamic Jihad in a statement Wednesday called on followers “to
escalate the resistance in all its forms”.
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