Mariam Barghouti
Mondoweiss / December 1, 2022
In the last three days, Israel has killed 8 Palestinians across the West Bank and the Naqab, including Palestinian resistance fighters Muhammad al-Saadi and Naim Zubeidi, as well as 13-year-old Issa Hani Talaqat.
On Thursday, December 1, Israeli special forces raided Jenin refugee camp and killed Palestinian resistance fighters in the Jenin Brigade, Muhammad al-Saadi and Naim Zubeidi.
The killing of Al-Saadi and Zubeidi, the latter of whom is the cousin of former Gilboa Prison break escapee Zakariah Zubeidi, brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel within the last 72 hours to eight. In total, 214 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2022, 54 of whom have been from Jenin.
Resistance groups across Palestine, including Fatah, the Islamic Jihad movement, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), have all hailed the martyrs as heroes, calling for the continuation of resistance and revolt. The Palestinian Committee for Resistance, a popular coalition of resistance groups across the West Bank, emphasized that “the policy of assassination will not curb resistors.”
The slaughterhouse expands
Al-Saadi and Zubeidi were killed 48 hours after Israel shot and killed four Palestinians in other parts of the West Bank.
On Tuesday morning, November 30, Israeli forces invading the village of Kufr Ein, northwest of Ramallah, shot and killed two brothers, Jawad Rimawi, 22, and Thafer Rimawi, 19. That same morning, Israeli forces also shot and killed Mufid Ikhlayel, 44, in Hebron/Al-Khalil.
The Nablus-based armed resistance group, the Lions’ Den, called for a general strike in mourning over the deaths of the Rimawis and Ikhlayel. In a statement shared via its Telegram account, the resistance group called on the people not to be quiescent “despite the bitterness of the economic conditions.”
“A normal day cannot pass as long as our blood continues to be spilled,” the statement read.
Less than 24 hours after killing three Palestinians in Ramallah and Hebron, Israeli forces also shot and killed Raed Ghazi Naasan. Naasan was killed with a bullet to the chest as the Israeli army invaded his home village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
Earlier in July, Israeli forces as well as armed settlers had raided Mughayyir and attacked residents, killing 15-year-old Amjad Abu Alia. According to eyewitnesses, the child was shot by settlers rather than the military.
That evening, after Naasan was taken to his final resting place, an Israeli settler exited her car and fired three bullets at a Palestinian car near Al-Mughayyir. The attack served as a further illustration of increasing settler impunity amid the continuous illegal expansion of Jewish-only settlements into what remains for Palestinians in the West Bank.
The martyr of the Naqab
On Wednesday morning, November 7, 13-year-old Issa Hani Talaqat, was declared dead in Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva, south of Ramallah. The young boy, who is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, had been shot by Israeli police on the night of Israeli elections, on November 1. He succumbed to his wounds a month later. Talaqat is from Arara, one of the last remaining Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab.
The police officer responsible for firing at the young boy reported feeling in “danger,” according to Israeli media.
Talaqat is one of 54 Palestinian children who have been shot and killed by Israeli forces this year, while last year Israel shot and killed 78 children. This has been the deadliest year for children since the large-scale military assault on Gaza in 2014, Operation Protective Edge.
Mariam Barghouti is the Senior Palestine Correspondent for Mondoweiss
