Jerusalem, Sep 20 (EFE).- Seven Palestinians were killed and another 11 injured in the town of Qabatiya in Jenin governorate, in the north of the occupied West Bank, during a 10-hour raid by the Israeli military, local sources reported early Friday.
Smoke rises during an Israeli military raid at Qabatiya village, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 19 September 2024. EFE-EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
A young man inside a vehicle was killed in a drone strike by Israeli forces, local sources confirmed Thursday night, while three others died in clashes with the troops.
Israeli army vehicles during an Israeli military raid at Qabatiya village, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 19 September 2024. EFE-EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Hours earlier, Israeli soldiers shot dead another three Palestinians, who were on the roof of a house.
At least 11 other people were wounded, four seriously, including a 16-year-old boy with a very critical bullet wound to the chest who was taken to hospital, medical sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
Videos posted on social media showed an Israeli soldier shooting the three Palestinians on the roof.
In the images, a soldier is seen pushing the body of one of them off the roof. The other two were thrown to ground in the same way, Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Medical teams claim that Israel did not allow them to approach the victims until six hours after they were shot by the forces.
Local sources said that the bodies were then removed by a military bulldozer and were now in the possession of the Israeli forces.
The military raid caused panic among students from the nearby schools of Abu al-Rab and Qabatiya.
About 1,000 students were evacuated in buses due to intense shooting nearby.
Local journalists also reported that the soldiers fired tear gas at them.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas described the raid as another failed attempt and said it would not break the determination of people or shake their firmness and commitment to the path of resistance.
The group did not specify if the victims were Hamas members.
The Jenin governorate has been one of the hubs of Palestinian armed resistance since the First Intifada in the 1980s.
Israel claims that the raids are aimed at killing members of Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad – another militant group -, but civilians and children also die in the incursions into occupied territory.
At the beginning of September, the Israeli military began one of the largest-scale offensives of the last two decades in the West Bank, with simultaneous raids in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, three cities in the north of the occupied territory where they killed at least 34 people, including militants, but also civilians and several minors.
Some 375 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank this year, including East Jerusalem, most of them militants or attackers but also civilians, including at least 61 minors, according to EFE’s count.
In Jenin governorate alone, at least 108 Palestinians have died. EFE
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