Mariam Barghouti
Mondoweiss / January 2, 2023
Israel has already killed two Palestinians and demolished two homes in 2023, signaling that ‘Operation Break the Wave’ is far from over.
On Monday morning, January 2, Israeli military forces invaded the town of Kufr Dan and killed Foad Mahmoud Abed, 18, and Mohammad Samer Hosheyeh, 22. Three others were injured, with one critically wounded in the chest.
Abed and Hosheyh were killed during armed confrontations with Israeli soldiers who invaded Kufr Dan with the purpose of punitively demolishing the homes of Abed al-Rahman Abed, 22, and Ahmad Abed, 23, two Palestinians who had carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation in September of last year that killed one Israeli soldier. Three apartments were destroyed, displacing 13 people.
‘Break the Wave’ continues
Foad Abed is the first Palestinian killed in Jenin this year. Last year was one of the deadliest years in the West Bank since 2005, as Israeli forces and settlers killed 231 Palestinians through extrajudicial assassinations and home invasions.
Israeli forces invaded the town around midnight where armed confrontation with youth ensued. By 3:00 a.m, Israeli soldiers had shot and killed two Palestinians. Hosheyeh was killed with a bullet to the chest while Abed was killed with several bullets to his abdomen and thigh.
Hosheyeh’s mother made her way through a group of men just before the call for dawn prayers to carry the body of her slain son on her shoulders.
In a statement, the Israeli military spokesperson said that “the IDF is currently conducting a military activity in Kufr Dan in the district of Jenin to demolish the homes of those that clashed with soldiers near the Jalamah crossing and in which an army commander was killed on September 14, 2022.”
On September 14 of last year, Ahmad and Abed al-Rahman shot at the military checkpoint of Al-Jalameh, west of Jenin, killing the deputy commander of the Nahal Brigade’s Special Reconnaissance Unit, Major Bar Falach, 30.
Homes punitively demolished
At approximately 12:00 a.m. on January 2, Israeli jeeps raided Kufr Dan with the purpose of demolishing two Palestinian homes as a measure of collective punishment against the families of the two men who carried out the Jalameh checkpoint operation.
After killing the two martyrs at the beginning of this year, the Israeli military continued its demolition mission of the family home of Ahmad Abed, expelling the family members before the demolition.
According to local journalists in Jenin, at approximately 8:50 a.m., the second home, belonging to the family of Abed al-Rahman Abed, was also forcibly evacuated at gun-point and detonated, reducing it to a pile of rubble. The family was forced outside of the house without enough clothes for the cold.
Punitive home demolitions as a measure of collective punishment has been practiced by the Israeli state since the 1980s. Illegal under international law, this practice was first employed against Palestinians by the British during its colonial Mandate over Palestine.
Mariam Barghouti is the Senior Palestine Correspondent for Mondoweiss
