Three Palestinian citizens died on Thursday in the West Bank after attacks by Israel, the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority said. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government is carrying out a wide-ranging military operation in the area after a series of attacks has left at least 11 Israelis dead in recent weeks.
According to the ministry, two youths died in Jenin district and a 45-year-old man who had been shot on Wednesday in Beita also died hours later. Residents told the AFP news agency that the two young men killed were Mustafa Abu Al Rub and Shaas Kamamji, the latter brother of a member of the Islamic Jihad faction.
The Israeli army said only that it was continuing what it called a counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, but did not comment on the casualties. “During the operation, dozens of Palestinians violently attacked soldiers, shot at Israeli forces and threw explosives,” he told AFP in a statement.
Israeli Homeland Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said Wednesday, as three other Palestinians were killed, according to local media, that operations in Jenin would grow in intensity. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has already said that he has given the green light to the Armed Forces to “defeat terror” and that there would be no limits to war.
Since March 22, Israel has seen four attacks on its territory, which have left civilians dead and injured. One of the episodes, in which two men of Arab origin shot dead two Israeli police officers in Hadera, was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
During the same period, according to a survey by the AFP agency, Israeli forces killed at least 20 Palestinians – the figure includes the men who carried out the attacks.
Islamic Jihad, in a statement, described the two young men killed on Thursday as martyrs and heroes and threatened to retaliate. “There is no way to stop the occupation except through resistance and confrontation,” the radical group said in a statement.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israeli soldiers of “killing for the sake of killing”. “There is not the slightest regard for international law,” he said. Palestinian officials say Israel has detained at least 200 Palestinians since early April.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian Authority official, said on Twitter that the international community had lost credibility due to silence in the face of what he described as Palestinian bloodshed committed by Israel on a daily basis.
The escalation of the conflict comes amid the Muslim celebration of the holy period of Ramadan, and on the eve of Passover, the Jewish as well as the Christian Passover. In 2021, during this same time, high tensions in Jerusalem sparked an 11-day armed confrontation between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, that killed more than 240.
