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SvennoJ on 12 April 2024
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At least two dead in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank

Two men has been shot dead in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian medical sources said the incident took place at the Far’a camp in the northern West Bank, as soldiers raided several homes and there were confrontations with several groups of young men.

The first slain man has been identified as Mohammed Essam Shahmawi. He died after being shot in the head by Israeli forces, as confrontations erupted, according to Wafa. During the raid, the Israeli military set up snipers at the entrance of the camp and flew reconnaissance drones over the skies, the Palestinian news agency reported.

After Israeli forces shot dead a man in the city’s Far’a camp earlier this morning, they killed a second man travelling in his car in Tubas, the PRCS said. Israeli fire also wounded at least three others in the city, one severely. A PRCS ambulance, responding to reports of casualties in the camp, was also hit by Israeli fire, while a volunteer paramedic inside the vehicle was beaten and arrested.

Palestinian killed in Tubas is son of Hamas leader who died in Israeli prison

It would be easier to say which areas Israeli forces did not raid overnight throughout the occupied West Bank. The deadly raid took place in Tubas to the north, where Israeli forces killed two Palestinians. One of them was ambushed in his car. He has been identified as Muhammad Rasoul.

Israeli sources say he was not a target of the raid, but shot at Israeli forces raiding the area, leading them to ambush his car.

According to locals, Muhammad Rasoul is known as the leader of the Tubas Battalion, a fighting group of young men that has been militarily confronting Israeli forces. He is also the son of Omar Daraghmeh, a Palestinian who was the first declared dead by the Israeli prison services since the war began. The father was known as a leader of Hamas here in the occupied West Bank.

While the family will lay the son to rest today after his killing, they still do not have the body of the father, whom Israeli forces have not handed over for burial after the declaration of his death six months ago.

Red Crescent medic hospitalised after Israeli assault

Wasim Mohammad Draghma, a volunteer paramedic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), has been transported to a hospital after being beaten and temporarily detained by Israeli forces. Draghma was assaulted after the ambulance he was in was attacked by Israeli forces in Far’a camp near Tubas, where it was responding to reports of casualties during an Israeli raid there.

Since the war began, 27 members of the PRCS have been killed, including 17 in the line of duty, according to the group.




Night-time raids take place across West Bank

Israeli forces have carried out another night of raids throughout the occupied West Bank. In addition to storming the Far’a camp near Tubas, as we reported, raids have also taken place in the following areas:

  • Town of Idhna, west of Hebron
  • Tulkarem city
  • Qalqilya city
  • Town of al-Fandaqumiya, south of Jenin
  • Town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit
  • Town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus

Unrelenting Israeli raids pushing more West Bank youth to arms

Tubas is a quiet area, where Palestinians often work in agriculture. But lately, we’ve seen young men in Tubas, Far’a and surrounding areas unite together and form the fighting battalion of Tubas. It is a very new group compared to others that have been active for years in Jenin, in the Balata refugee camp and other places.

Palestinians will tell you it is the Israeli raids that have led many people to choose arms as the way to confront Israel. The raids, they say, show the control, power and brutality of the Israeli military occupation. It is leading many Palestinians to say that armed resistance is the only way to fight.


Killed, wounded and detained in occupied West Bank

The killing of two people by Israeli forces in Tubas this morning brings the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war to 462. The figure includes 117 children and 14 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli custody, with nine of them from the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have injured more than 4,750 Palestinians and detained at least 8,165 in the same period.


Israel seizes record amount of West Bank land in 2024: Report

Israel has declared some 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank as state territory since its war on Gaza began on October 7, with its seizures in 2024 outpacing any year in history, reports Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

This includes the seizure of an 800-hectare (1,977-acre) zone near the border between the West Bank and Jordan in late March, in what was the single biggest land seizure in Israeli history.


Attacks continue at the Lebanon border as well

Inside a destroyed southern Lebanese town

An Al Jazeera team has made it into Aita al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon, which has been turned into a ghost town after being pounded for months by Israeli air raids, artillery, drones and tank fire.

“There is a tense calm,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, adding that some residents had seized the opportunity on the occasion of Eid to return to Aita al-Shaab and check the state of their houses.

But the findings were grim. Piles of rubble lay where houses once stood. Shops are wrecked and roads are empty. “Everywhere has been hit,” Hashem said, describing Aita al-Shaab as “one of the most destroyed towns” on the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Aita al-Shaab has witnessed nearly daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza. At least 66 civilians have been killed and more than 90,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in southern Lebanon since the start of the conflict, according to UN figures.