NABLUS,
Palestinian Territories —
Israeli occupation forces killed three
Palestinians Tuesday during a daytime raid, leaving a vehicle in the West Bank
city of Nablus riddled with bullet holes.
اضافة اعلان
The
Palestinian health ministry and Israeli forces both confirmed the three deaths.
Sources
in the
Palestinian Fatah movement identified two of the dead as Adham Mabrouk
and Muhammad Al-Dakhil, who they said were affiliated with the militant Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades.
Israeli
Defense Minister Benny Gantz praised the raid and said he had ordered an
increase in "counterterrorism activities" due to recent shootings in
the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned the raid as a "summary
execution".
According
to a
Palestinian security source, "Israeli soldiers who were in a civilian
vehicle intercepted a Palestinian vehicle and directly fired at it, which led
to the deaths of three young men."
AFP
reporters in Nablus saw a bullet-riddled windshield of a silver car that
eyewitnesses said Israeli forces targeted.
The
witnesses, who requested anonymity citing security concerns, said one of the
vehicles carrying the Israeli troops was a yellow taxi.
Hundreds
of Palestinians thronged the streets outside the Rafidia hospital in Nablus as
the bodies of the men were carried out.
The
PA foreign ministry said in a statement that it "holds the Israeli
government headed by Naftali Bennett fully and directly responsible for this
heinous crime".
Ties
between the PA, led by Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel remain
fraught, though there have been signs of a thaw in recent months following a
series of high-level meetings, including Gantz hosting Abbas at his home.
But
Palestinian assailants have continued to attack Israeli occupation forces in
the
West Bank, and Israel has responded with lethal force and frequent raids
against groups it describes as “militant cells”.
Some
475,000 Israelis live in settlements — considered illegal under international
law — among around 2.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank, fueling tensions
in the area that Palestinians claim as a part of their future state.
Bennett,
the former head of a settler lobbying council, opposes Palestinian statehood
and has ruled out formal peace talks with the PA under his watch, saying he
will focus instead on improving economic conditions in the West Bank.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
