TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / August 29, 2024
The incident occurred around 4:00 AM when the Israeli army surrounded a building in the Tulkarm camp, where Abu Shujaa and several other Palestinian fighters were located.
The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it had killed the commander of the Tulkarm Battalion, Mohammad Jaber, known by his nom de guerre Abu Shujaa, along with four other battalion members during an exchange of fire at the Nur Shams camp in the West Bank.
This came as part of a large-scale military operation that began on Wednesday.
According to Israel’s Channel 14, the incident occurred around 4:00 AM when the Israeli army surrounded a building in the Tulkarm camp, where Abu Shujaa and several other Palestinian fighters were located.
During the ensuing exchange of gunfire, an Israeli army unit reportedly fired a missile at the building.
Following the clashes, Abu Shujaa and four others were killed, while the Israeli army captured another wanted Palestinian from the building.
The Israeli military also reported that one of its soldiers was injured during the confrontation at the Nur Shams camp.
Nafir and assassination attempts
Abu Shujaa, the 26-year-old leader of the Tulkarm Brigades was the target of assassination by the Israeli army for years.
Last July, under protests from ordinary Palestinians, he was freed from the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, which had been placed under siege, not by the Israeli military, but by Palestinian Authority Police.
When the news emerged that Abu Shujaa, and possibly others, were besieged by PA security forces in the hospital, Palestinian groups, including the military arm of the Fatah movement declared nafir, an Arabic word indicating popular mobilization.
Last April, the Israeli army invaded the Tulkarm refugee camp, carrying out one of its deadliest operations in years, which resulted in the killing of 14 Palestinians and the wounding of many more.
At the time, after rumors that Abu Shujaa was killed, the young man appeared at the mass funeral of his colleagues, brandishing his automatic rifle and delivering an emotive speech about the continuation of the resistance.
Israel had been seeking to arrest him or kill him ever since, especially as the Tulkarm Brigades emerged as one of the strongest of the fighting groups that are resisting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Expansion of operations
Eyewitnesses noted that the Israeli military has expanded its operations in Jenin, continuing to besiege and raid homes in its eastern neighborhood.
The army also stormed several neighborhoods in the city, sent in military reinforcements, and engaged in ongoing armed clashes with Palestinian fighters, with explosions heard intermittently, according to Al-Jazeera.
The Red Crescent reported that a Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin’s eastern neighborhood.
The military operation has also intensified in Tulkarm, where Israeli forces stormed the camp, raided Palestinian homes, and detained numerous citizens for field investigations. Explosions and gunfire have been frequently reported in various areas of Tulkarm.
Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Faraa camp in Tubas, leaving significant destruction behind.
The correspondent also mentioned that the Israeli army stormed Al-Arroub camp, north of Hebron (Al-Khalil) in the southern West Bank, early Thursday morning for the second time in a few hours.
The army continued to besiege the Jenin and Nur Shams camps in Tulkarm amid ongoing clashes with resistance fighters and the sound of loud explosions.
The Israeli military also conducted a series of raids in the city of Nablus and the Balata and Askar camps, arresting several citizens.
Large-scale operation
For the second consecutive day, the Israeli army has continued its military operation across cities and towns in the northern occupied West Bank, expanding its efforts in Tulkarm while withdrawing from the Far’a camp.
The number of Palestinian casualties has risen to 17 dead and over 20 wounded.
On Wednesday, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority announced that the Israeli army had launched a large-scale operation in the northern West Bank, with security forces operating simultaneously in Jenin and Tulkarm.
Under the cover of air support, large Israeli forces stormed Jenin, Tulkarm, their respective camps, and the Far’a camp near Tubas in the early hours of the morning. Israeli drones conducted at least three raids, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries.
The Israeli military confirmed that combat helicopters and drones are involved in the operation to support ground forces, and the operation is expected to continue for several days.
Channel 14 Israel described this operation as the largest since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
Amid its ongoing conflict in Gaza since October 7, the Israeli army has intensified its attacks in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, resulting in the deaths of 670 Palestinians, including 150 children, injuries to more than 5,400 people, and the arrest of over 10,000 individuals.
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Israeli forces kill Palestinian militant commander in West Bank
Alexandra Sharp
Foreign Policy / August 29, 2024
The United Nations urged Israel to cease its now two-day operation in the West Bank.
Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank entered its second day on Thursday with the deaths of five alleged militants whom the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said had been hiding in a mosque in Tulkarm. Among those killed was Mohammed Jaber, a commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local branch. The militant organization confirmed his death later on Thursday; a municipal official in Tulkarm said Jaber and the others were killed while hiding in a home next to a mosque.
The IDF said Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, was involved in “numerous terror attacks,” including the murder of an Israeli civilian in the West Bank city of Qalqilya in June. Jaber gained popularity in April after the Israeli military announced that he had been killed during a raid on the Tulkarm camp, only to emerge alive three days later at a funeral for other Palestinians killed during that same attack.
This week’s raids are part of the first stages of an operation to counter militants in the West Bank, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Hundreds of troops accompanied by drones first pushed into the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm on Wednesday in one of the largest assaults on the region in more than a year.
This is a Gaza-style operation meant to root out “Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” Katz said, accusing Tehran of trying to establish an eastern front against Israel to assist Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both of which are also backed by Iran. Israeli officials have denounced Tehran for supplying Palestinian militants in the West Bank with weapons.
At least 17 people have been killed in this week’s raids thus far, according to local media. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had lost contact with emergency medical services in Jenin as Israeli troops surrounded the city’s main hospital with checkpoints and earth mounds. And the entirety of the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm reported having no water or sewage services due to Israeli forces bulldozing the streets in what the military says is a necessary step to counter explosive devices under the roads.
Israel’s raids in the West Bank are “deeply concerning,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, and he called for an immediate end to all operations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the operation, and Hamas reiterated its calls for Palestinians in the West Bank to join the militant group’s fight against Israel. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Israel to implement temporary “area-specific humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to allow polio vaccines to enter the enclave. The pauses will begin on Sunday and occur in three-day shifts: first in central Gaza, then southern, and finally northern. WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn said additional days may be needed to complete the vaccinations, which aim to help around 640,000 children younger than age 10.
An Israeli official said some sort of tactical pause will occur but that these are not cease-fires between Israel and Hamas. Truce and hostage release negotiations remain ongoing in Cairo.
Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy
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Israel kills a top militant in its deadliest West Bank raids since the Gaza war began
Majdi Mohammed & Melanie Lidman
AP / August 30, 2024
TULKAREM, West Bank – The Israeli military said it killed five more West Bank militants, including a local commander, as it pressed ahead Thursday with its deadliest operation in the occupied territory since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel says the raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed a total of 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.
The raids drew alarm from the United Nations and neighboring Jordan, as well as from British and French leaders, who stressed the urgency of cease-fire in Gaza after nearly 11 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Medics at al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza said Thursday nine Palestinians from the same family — including two women and five young children — were killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment building in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Israel did not immediately offer comment on the intended target of its attack.
Beginning Sunday, Israel will pause some military operations in Gaza to allow health workers to begin administering polio vaccines to some 650,000 Palestinian children, the U.N. World Health Organization said Thursday. A case was discovered earlier this month for the first time in 25 years.
In the West Bank, the Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarem. He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier in the year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.
Israel said he was killed Thursday along with four other militants in a shootout after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.
Israel’s search-and-arrest raids continued for hours Thursday, including the city of Jenin.
Firefights also erupted in Fara’a, a Palestinian urban refugee camp in the foothills of the Jordan Valley, where the Israeli army said it struck and killed a group of militants traveling in a car. Their militant affiliations were not immediately clear.
The army also said it uncovered caches of weapons, explosive devices and other military equipment inside a mosque in Fara’a and arrested another militant in Tulkarem, where a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.
Israel’s latest operation in the West Bank began late Tuesday in several locations, and Hamas confirmed 10 of its fighters were killed. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th death on Wednesday, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.
The U.N. secretary-general, António Guterres, called for an immediate halt to the raids, asking Israel’s government to comply with its obligations under international law and to take measures to protect civilians.
“These dangerous developments are fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority,” he said in a statement from his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
The overall toll of 16 killed in less than two days makes it the deadliest Israeli operation in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel that ignited the war.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most appear to have been militants killed in gunbattles during Israeli operations like the one this week, but civilian bystanders and rock-throwing protesters have also been killed, and the territory saw a surge of Jewish settler violence.
Attacks against Israeli citizens have also risen since the start of the war.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. Over 500,000 Israelis live in well over 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.
The raids have focused on refugee camps that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, in which around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.
Hamas repeated its calls for Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, calling the raids part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza. The militant group has urged security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which cooperate with Israel, to “join the sacred battle of our people.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has also condemned the Israeli raids, but his forces were not expected to get involved.
The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and rampaged through army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. The militants are still holding 108 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a November cease-fire.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants. Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and Israeli bombardment and ground operations have caused vast destruction.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire that would see the remaining hostages released. But the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group has demanded a lasting cease-fire and a full withdrawal from the territory.
Melanie Lidman reported from Jerusalem; Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed
