Six Palestinian men were killed Tuesday in the West Bank city of Jenin during an Israeli military raid pursuing a Hamas operative suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli brothers last week, Israeli and Palestinian authorities said.
The Israeli military said troops encircled a house in Jenin’s refugee camp where Abdelfattah Kharoushe, a member of the US-designated terrorist group Hamas, had barricaded himself. Soldiers fired shoulder-mounted missiles at Mr Kharoushe’s hide-out in an attempt to force him out and killed him in an ensuing gunbattle along with five other Palestinian men.
Hamas said another of those killed was a member of its armed wing and identified the rest as militants who had joined the shootout with Israeli troops. Three Israeli police officers — members of a counterterror unit — also were wounded, Israeli officials said.
At least 65 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the beginning of 2023, marking one of the deadliest periods for both sides in years, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal. The Israeli military said most of the Palestinians killed had attacked Israeli troops or civilians, but some, including a 61-year-old Palestinian woman in Jenin, were civilians.
Israeli and Palestinian officials have warned the violence could escalate during the coming Muslim holy month of Ramadan that begins later in March and coincides with the Jewish Passover holiday. Tensions often rise in Israel and the West Bank during these holidays.
Read the article by Aaron Boxerman in The Australian.