- The two men were killed on Saturday “during an assault on the village of Jaba.
- The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces last year has risen to 149.
- The Israeli army has launched a campaign called Break the Wave.
During an army operation close to a sensitive community in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian males.
The two men – Ezzedine Bassem Hamamreh, 24, and Amjad Adnan Khaliliyeh, 23 – were killed on Saturday “during an assault on the village of Jaba, south of Jenin”, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said Hamamreh and Khaliliyeh were its members. In a statement, the group condemned the killings, describing the two men as “heroic martyrs”.
It said they were killed while trying to intervene against the “occupation forces, which were carrying out a cowardly assassination operation”.
Izzaldeen Hamamreh, 24, and Amjad Khaliliyeh, 23, were killed in an exchange of fire w/ Israeli forces near Jaba, south of Jenin b4 dawn. Yazan Ja’bari, 19, succumbed to wounds sustained during confrontations with Israeli forces in KufrDan, west of Jenin on 5 JAN. pic.twitter.com/f65XbQ5KHK
— Rania Zabaneh (@RZabaneh) January 14, 2023
Yazen Samer Ja’abari, a 19-year-old Palestinian who was shot by Israeli forces on January 2, was a third Palestinian who perished as a result of his wounds, the ministry reported. Ja’abari was hurt during an IDF raid that also claimed the lives of two other Palestinians in the village of Kufr Dan, which is close to Jenin.
The latest deaths increase the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, which Israel has been occupying since 1967, to 12 this year. Three minors are present in the number. For almost a year, the Israeli military has been conducting a campaign of stepped-up raids and assassinations.
The Israeli army has launched a campaign called Break the Wave in response to a series of Palestinian attacks that started in Israel in March. This campaign has included almost daily raids, large-scale arrests, and killings in the occupied West Bank, with a focus on Jenin and Nablus, where Palestinian armed resistance has become more organised over the past year.
According to the United Nations, 149 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in 2022, making it the worst year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in the previous 16 years. Among those killed last year were more than 30 kids. A minimum of 9,000 Palestinians suffered injuries.
Israeli forces have killed people who confronted them during raids, spectators who were not involved in the incident, as well as Palestinian fighters in targeted killings and combat.
The most right-wing Israeli administration in its 74-year history, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was just formed, and the most recent killings were announced a few weeks afterwards.
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