Mariam Barghouti
Mondoweiss / November 4, 2022
Israeli forces and Jewish settlers launch several separate attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem as Operation Break the Wave shows no signs of winding down.
On November 3, Israeli forces and settlers launched a number of separate attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem, leaving four dead in the span of 24 hours. In addition, Israeli forces arrested 17 Palestinians in overnight invade-and-arrest military raids across the occupied territory.
The four were killed in three separate incidents across the West Bank — Daoud Mahmoud Rayyan from Beit Duqqo, 42; Amer Halabiya from occupied Jerusalem, 20; Farouq Salameh, 28; and Mohammad Khlouf from Jenin refugee camp, 14. Less than 24 hours earlier, 54-year-old Habas Rayyan from Beit Duqqo was shot and killed on Wednesday morning, November 2.
The first Palestinian to be killed was 54-year-old Habas Rayyan on November 2, gunned down by the Israeli army in the small town of Beit Duqqo, northwest of Jerusalem. The army claimed that Rayyan was trying to run over Israeli soldiers. According to residents of the town, Rayyan was detained and held captive by Israeli forces for more than an hour the night before, on November 1.
Denied the ability to go home after work, he had been found sleeping in his car. On September 20 of this year, Israeli forces arrested Rayyan’s son, Qusai, who is still imprisoned today.
Less than 24 hours after Habas Rayyan was killed, Israeli forces raided Beit Duqqo again during the dawn hours of Thursday, November 3. Youth confronted Israeli forces raiding the town by hurling stones, burning tires, and setting off fireworks towards the army. Israeli forces persisted in their invasion and fired live ammunition. Daoud Mahmoud Rayyan, 42, was shot and killed with a bullet to the heart.
At the same time, Israeli settlers were raiding the Palestinian town of Beit Iksa in Jerusalem, and had spray-painted racist slurs and calls for the expulsion of Palestinians on Palestinian property, according to Rabi’ Eid, a resident of the area.
A few hours later, at approximately 9:00 a.m., Israeli forces in Ramallah were invading the town of Al-Bireh to demolish Palestinian-owned structures. In the same hour, just 23 km south of Ramallah, Israeli forces in the Old City of Jerusalem shot a young man near the doors of the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Amer Halabiya, 20, had carried out a stabbing attack while being stopped and searched at the entrance of the holy place by armed Israeli forces — a practice that has been in effect for more than two decades.
A student in Birzeit University, Halabiya is originally from Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem which faces constant neglect by Israeli administrative authorities, as well as heavy policing and harassment by Israeli police forces.
And finally, at approximately 1:00 p.m., Israeli special forces, along with the military, raided Jenin to assassinate a Palestinian resistance fighter. After half an hour, bullets were heard around Jenin refugee camp, 148 km north of occupied Jerusalem.
In less than an hour, Farouq Salamah, 42, was injured with at least four bullet holes across his chest and abdomen. Attempts by doctors to resuscitate him failed. Another Palestinian teenager, 14-year-old Mohammad Khlouf, was also shot and killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin refugee camp.
The end of a bloody month, the start of another
October was one of the bloodiest months for Palestinians, with 31 killed in the West Bank alone. With five martyrs in less than three days, November seems to have a similar echo. The latest fatal assault by Israeli forces on Thursday afternoon brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the beginning of the year to 197, according to the Ministry of Health.
Israeli forces have killed 49 Palestinians this year in Jenin alone. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, this includes five resistance fighters that have carried armed operations against Israeli colonial expansion, and 16 men that have been killed in confrontations against Israeli special forces, intelligence forces, and soldiers, during premeditated assassination operations and invasions of Jenin.
Jenin refugee camp, along with Nablus’ Old City, have become central locations for organized Palestinian armed resistance. With the “Wasps’ Nest,” Ush al-Dababeer in Arabic, in Jenin and the “Lions’ Den” in Nablus, Israeli forces have ramped up their campaign of targeted extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian resistance fighters.
The brutality of these assassinations, and the non-combatants whom are killed in the process, has drawn condemnation from human rights organizations, state representatives, and international UN bodies.
However, Thursday’s killings are evidence that Israel will continue to escalate its long-term assault on Palestinian resistance groups, called Operation Break the Wave.
While Israeli soldiers shoot to kill when feeling threatened, Palestinian communities continue to endure near daily invasions and raids on their homes by Israeli forces and armed settlers. The spokesperson for the presidential office of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Nabil Abu Rdeineh had said that Israeli attacks are building towards “an all-out explosion and to the point of no return.”
Mariam Barghouti is the Senior Palestine Correspondent for Mondoweiss
