International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
08 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
The Israeli occupation is not only committing crimes in Gaza, it continues to commit crimes in the West Bank.
A quick military operation was carried out by Israeli special forces in broad daylight, as they planned an ambush for three young men from the Tulkarm refugee camp, near the eastern neighborhood – the roundabout of the slaughterhouse in the city of Tulkarm.
On Monday evening (6th of October), around 4: 38 PM, Israeli special forces assassinated 3 Palestinian youths inside their car in the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarm city. Another Palestinian was killed later, bringing the number to 4 Palestinians who were in the area.
At least 70-80 live bullets were fired.
The Israeli special forces opened fire at point-blank range on the three young men, and continued firing on the corpses even after the three Palestinians had been killed. 5 other Palestinian civilians who were in the area were also shot, including a 14-year-old boy, whose injury was described as serious.
The Israeli occupation forces were not satisfied with this brutal assassination, and on Tuesday night (7th of November) at 03.00 AM the occupation forces invaded and stormed the Tulkarem refugee camp, with the presence of huge military vehicles, including a D9 type crawler, to bulldoze and sabotage the main roads and streets in the camp, especially in the Balawneh neighborhood.
During a difficult night in the shadow of tension and fear, the occupation forces vandalized the camp’s infrastructure, the main streets and roads leading to the camp, and also targeted the power transformer and the electricity grid. The Israeli occupation forces and its military vehicles shelled two Palestinian homes, the first belonging to the Al-Banna family, and the other belonging to the martyr Azzedine Awad, one of the young men who was assassinated inside by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) the day before.
Two shops belonging to family members of the martyr Azzedine Awad were destroyed, and his mother was hit by an Israeli bullet in the face area, although her wound was described as superficial.
Hundreds of Palestinians in Tulkarm camp and the city mourned the four martyrs to their final resting place: Jihad Shehada, 24 years old; Ezzedine Awad, 27 years old; Mo’min Belaoui, 20 years old; Qasem Rogby, 20 years old.
Their parents, friends, and camp residents took a last farewell look at them, and chanted words of anger and national unity as they transported the corpeses of the martyrs to the Al-Salam mosque in the camp to pray for them, and later to the the Nabi cemetery, on the other side of Tulkarm camp. A state of sadness prevails in the Tulkarm refugee camp after the killing of 4 of its young men.
The occupation forces continue to brutally kill Palestinian youth, in the West Bank and Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of health, 29 Palestinians have been killed in the city of Tulkarem since October 7th, while in the whole of the West Bank there have been more than 160 martyrs during the same period.
