Violence Escalates in Jericho Refugee Camp amid Israeli Military Raid
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Israeli military raided the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, resulting in two men being shot, according to the Wafa news agency.
Nine others, including workers from Gaza, were hospitalized after Israeli forces beat them, Wafa reported.
Israeli military raids were also reported in the Ain as-Sultan refugee camp in Jericho, the town of Shuyoukh north of Hebron (al-Khalil), and the towns of Silat ad-Dhahr and Faqqua in the Jenin governorate, as well as the town of Salem east of Nablus.
In a separate incident, a young Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid on Anabta, a town in the northern occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Wafa, citing local sources, reported that 22-year-old Moamen Omar Abu Asal was critically wounded when Israeli soldiers stormed the town, located 9 kilometers east of Tulkarm, on Saturday morning and opened fire on local residents.
He was taken to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarm, where he was later pronounced dead.
Local sources, who requested anonymity, said Israeli forces entered the town from the Enab military checkpoint, patrolled its main streets, and positioned themselves along al-Sikka Street before firing indiscriminately.
During the raid, Israeli troops also detained two siblings of veteran Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Nassim Abdo after ransacking their homes.
Wafa also reported that at least 11 Palestinians were injured during an Israeli military incursion into the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, southwest of Ariha, on Saturday.
According to security sources, Israeli forces fired live bullets and stun grenades to intimidate locals as they stormed the camp.
Security sources added that Israeli forces assaulted members of two Palestinian families in the camp with rifle butts during the raid.
Additionally, Israeli troops conducted a wide inspection campaign in the Ain al-Sultan refugee camp and al-Duyuk al-Tahta village, detaining several local residents before releasing them hours later.
Jan Egeland, chief of the Norwegian Refugee Council, stated that the failure to hold Israel accountable for its use of “excessive force” against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank has allowed its armed forces to violate international humanitarian law.
Egeland emphasized that while global attention is on Rafah, focus should not be diverted from Israeli actions in the West Bank. He noted that on Thursday, Israeli military helicopters used heavy machine guns in the Jenin refugee camp.
According to the UN, between June 2023 and May 15, 2024, Israel conducted 64 air strikes in the occupied West Bank, resulting in 123 Palestinian deaths and 203 injuries.
“The failure to hold Israel accountable has allowed its forces to violate IHL (international humanitarian law) without consequence,” Egeland said.
Since Israel launched a war on the besieged Gaza Strip in early October 2023, casualties in the West Bank have surged due to intensified near-daily Israeli raids into villages and cities in the occupied territories.
At least 530 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or extremist Jewish settlers since the war began. According to the UN, 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN began keeping such records in 2005.
Over the past eight months, at least 36,731 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip.