Non-Stop Killings and Incursions in the West Bank

27 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank

By Diana Khwaelid 

The Israeli Occupation forces killed four Palestinians in the West Bank in 4 days, during incursions in several cities from January 12 to 15.

Since October 7, 2023, the West Bank has witnessed large-scale Israeli incursions, involving storming cities, villages and camps, and carrying out assassinations and arrests of Palestinian youths. Tulkarem in particular has witnessed many more such operations than ever before.

Tulkarem

On January 12, the IOF stormed the village of Zita, northeast of the city of Tulkarem, at about 20:30, opening fire on Palestinian youths and killing a young student, Khaled Zubaidi. He was 19-year-old and from the village of Zita, a student of Telecommunications Engineering at Palestine Technical University Kadoori. Two others were injured.

Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps have witnessed continuous incursions in the past months too.

Nablus

The same week, the Israeli army stormed the city of Nablus, and opened fire indiscriminately on Palestinians in the street.  An elderly man was wounded after he was shot in the abdomen, a 15-year-old Palestinian child suffered a head injury and was taken to the hospital, and a young Palestinian man, Abboud al-Shami, was arrested.

Al-Khalil

On the evening of Monday, January 15, the IOF stormed the town of Dora, south of Al-Khalil.  There, they opened fire, killing a young man and a young girl, Mohammed Abu Saba, 22 and Ahed Mohammed, 23.  Both were residents of Dora, and were killed merely because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Occupation forces injured nine others, four of whom seriously, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Tulkarem, Nablus

On the evening of Monday, January 15, Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian from the village of Beit Furik, in Nablus.  The shooting happened near the Annab checkpoint connecting Tulkarm and Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

At that time, when Israeli occupation forces closed the road, barring citizens from entering and leaving both Tulkarm and Nablus, an Israeli soldier stopped a car carrying Fares Khalifa of the Nur Shams camp, an officer in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service and a liberated prisoner who spent 8 years in Israeli occupation prisons.

Khalifa refused to get out of the car, violating the soldier’s orders. After examining his Palestinian ID, the Israeli soldier forcibly removed Khalifa from the car, handcuffed him, and shot him, according to eyewitnesses who were in the area. Khalifa died instantly.

At the time of Fares Khalifa’s shooting, his family in the Nur Shams camp was still grieving the death of their other son, Farsan. A former prisoner of the occupation forces, he was released and deported to Gaza, where he was killed in the war a few weeks ago.

Continued Israeli incursions that are increasing in intensity, in conjunction with the continuation of the genocidal attack by occupation forces on Gaza, have left many Palestinians in a constant state of sadness, fear and tension, as they continue to confront a considerably more dangerous time than the country has witnessed in many years.