MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / June 20, 2023
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says it is time to ‘take down buildings’ as he calls for more air operations a day after a deadly Israeli raid on Jenin.
Four Jewish settlers have been killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank, according to medical services, with four others left wounded.
The Magen David Adom emergency services said the shooting took place near the illegal Jewish settlement of Eli in the central West Bank.
Four more were left wounded, the organization reported.
Two gunmen were identified by Palestinian media as Muhannad Faleh Shehadeh and Khaled Mustafa Sabah, both of whom are from the village of Orif, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Shehadeh was shot dead at the scene. Sabah was shot dead in Toubas in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the scene of the shooting Tuesday evening, and called on “residents of Judea and Samaria to carry weapons”, saying “it saves lives”.
Ben Gvir demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant launch a major military operation in the occupied West Bank.
“We need a return to targeted killings from the air, bring down buildings, set up roadblocks, expel terrorists, and finish passing the death penalty for terrorists legislation,” he said.
The shooting comes a day after a major Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin that killed six Palestinians.
The Palestinian health ministry named Amjad al-Jas, 48, as the sixth and oldest Palestinian to be killed during the raid.
According to Palestinian media outlet Arab48, Amjad’s 22-year-old son, Waseem Amjad Aref al-Jas, was also killed by Israeli forces in January of this year during a similar raid on Jenin that killed 10 Palestinians.
The youngest victim of the attack was Ahmed Youssef Saqr (15). The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces also killed 21-year-old Khaled Azzam Darwish; Qassam Faisal Abu Sariya (29); Qais Majdi Jabareen (21); and Ahmed Daraghmeh (19).
Israel deployed an estimated 120 military vehicles in Jenin on Monday, backed by Apache helicopters which it used to attack Palestinian targets for the first time in the West Bank since 2002.
Snipers were also deployed overlooking the city.
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At least four people killed by Palestinian gunman in West Bank
AP / June 20, 2023
Israeli security forces say gunman was shot and search for other attackers continues after incident near the Jewish settlement of Eli.
A Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.
Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.
The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear. Photos circulated of a man lying bloodied and face-down in the street beside an automatic rifle.
The Israeli rescue service said it had evacuated two seriously wounded men, aged 20 and 38, to nearby hospitals for treatment. It said that four more people had been wounded at the scene, and three of them were unconscious. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear.
Tuesday’s shooting followed a deadly Israeli military raid into the northern West Bank Jenin refugee camp on Monday that triggered the fiercest fighting in years, killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens more. In a rare move, the Israeli military deployed helicopter gunships as its forces cleared the area to evacuate wounded soldiers who had been stranded in broken military vehicles after Palestinian militants targeted them with powerful roadside bombs.
Late on Monday night, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man whom they alleged had thrown a firebomb at troops along a West Bank highway in the Palestinian town of Husan, west of Bethlehem. The Palestinian health ministry identified the man killed as 21-year-old Zakaria al-Zaoul.
Israel and the Palestinians have been gripped by months of violence, focused mainly in the West Bank, where at least 126 Palestinians have been killed this year. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people this year.
Also on Tuesday, 48-year-old Amjad Abu Jaas died from critical wounds sustained in Monday’s gun battle in Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. His death brought to six the number of Palestinians killed during the raid, with more than 90 wounded, a dozen of those critically. Eight Israeli soldiers were also wounded.
Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to Palestinian violence early last year. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have surged during that time. Israel says most of the Palestinian dead were militants, but stone-throwing young people protesting against the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.
