By Diana Khwaelid
Who is holding Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians, especially those who kill in cold blood? Khaled al-Houbi, a 40-year-old nurse, husband, and father of three children from the town of Zita, north of Tulkarm, was one of the recent victims of the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli occupation forces killed him in cold blood on June 12 this year, while he was living near the illegal settlement of Homesh near Jenin in the northern West Bank.
They pierced his defenseless body with ten bullets without any mercy, and he died instantly.
Khaled, who has been working as a nurse for 16 years at the Thabet government hospital in Tulkarm, is the only male among his eight sisters.
The occupation stole him away from his family, including his thirty-year-old wife and his three young children, the youngest of whom is three years old and the oldest is ten years old.
The Palestinian civil association has been building pressure on Israel to hand over the bodies of the Palestinian martyrs killed by Israel, and they succeeded in recovering the body of Khaled al-Houbi after Israel detained his body for almost 4 continuous months.
Hanan al-Houbi, 52, sister of Khaled, shared:
We received the news of the martyrdom of Khaled, my brother, and we are full of sadness and sorrow. It was shocking news for everyone. Khaled was both the bond for us as daughters after the death of our parents, and for his wife and children. He is the only male brother and the youngest in the family. We did not expect that a day would come when we would lose Khaled and the Israeli occupation would execute him in this way.
His other sister, Manal, 54, said:
The occupation stole all of Khaled’s internal organs. This is another crime committed by the Israeli authorities against the Palestinians, whom they kill and then detain their bodies.
In a state of sadness and sorrow, Khaled’s family said goodbye to him for the last time, before taking him to the mosque to pray for him and then to the cemetery.
