TPC Staff
Palestine Chronicle / August 21, 2026
Israeli forces killed Fathi Khazem during a raid on his Jenin home and withheld his body, according to Palestinian sources.
Israeli occupation forces killed Palestinian Fathi Khazem, widely known as Abu Raad, during a raid on his home in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin early Friday, according to Palestinian media and local sources.
Khazem, a retired colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces and the father of two Palestinians killed by Israel in 2022, had been pursued by Israeli forces for years.
Local sources cited by Quds News Network said Israeli forces stormed Khazem’s home near Jenin’s main roundabout and opened fire on him, killing him.
Israeli forces subsequently withheld his body and transferred it to an undisclosed location, according to the reports.
Residents also reported that an Israeli special forces unit entered the house and shot Khazem directly.
Palestinian sources said Israeli forces prevented an ambulance from reaching the property to provide medical assistance to an injured person. It later emerged that Khazem was the person targeted in the operation.
The Israeli military alleged that Khazem had attempted to stab a soldier in the Jenin area. It said no Israeli soldiers were injured.
Palestinian accounts of the incident differed sharply, describing Khazem as having been shot during the raid on his home.
Father of Raad and Abdulrahman
Khazem became a prominent figure in Jenin following the deaths of his two sons, Raad and Abdulrahman, in 2022.
Raad Khazem carried out a shooting operation on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv in April 2022 that killed three Israelis. He was subsequently killed by Israeli occupation forces.
His brother Abdulrahman, a commander in the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, was killed during an armed confrontation with Israeli forces in Jenin in September of the same year.
Following their deaths, Fathi Khazem became widely known among Palestinians as the “father of the martyrs” and emerged as a recognizable figure in Jenin.
Israeli forces repeatedly pursued him in subsequent years, according to Palestinian reports.
Child shot in chest and back
Khazem’s killing came amid a broader Israeli military operation across Jenin on Friday.
Israeli forces detained three Palestinians during a raid on the city’s eastern neighbourhood, identified by local sources as Hassan Ibrahim Sayyed, Nour Ahmad Abu Aziz and Mohammed Farhan Saadi al-Eish.
Israeli forces also arrested Ibrahim al-Bitawi, the father of ‘wanted’ Palestinian Qais al-Bitawi, during a raid near the Arab American University.
Writer and researcher Mohammed Fares Jaradat was detained after Israeli forces raided his home in the Al-Hadaf neighbourhood near Jenin refugee camp.
Separately, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said its crews treated a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who had been shot with live ammunition in the chest and back near the Arab American University.
The child was transferred to a hospital for treatment.
Raids across the West Bank
Israeli military operations extended into several other areas of the occupied West Bank.
In Kafr Qallil, southeast of Nablus, Israeli forces arrested Wasim Mansour and his son Khaled after raiding and searching their home.
Israeli soldiers also entered Awarta, southeast of Nablus, where Palestinian reports said they performed Talmudic rituals at a religious site.
In Bethlehem, occupation forces raided a home in the Jabal al-Mawaleh area, while in the Hebron governorate, Israeli forces detained Oday al-Aramin during a raid on Sa’ir.
Israeli settlers also set fire to a stone quarry in Wadi al-Rakhim in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron (Al-Khalil), according to Palestinian sources.
Israeli forces separately raided Tubas and searched several homes.
(QNN, Al-Mayadeen, TPC)
