Israeli troops are continuing operations in three areas of the West Bank, where they have killed 40 Palestinians since August 28, according to local news agency Wafa. On Thursday morning, the army withdrew from the Faraa refugee camp in the city of Tubas after launching a drone attack that killed five youths aged between 20 and 30.
According to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the plane carried out three bombing raids against “armed terrorists who posed a threat to Israeli soldiers” as part of its “anti-terrorist operation.”
The youngest of the deceased, Mohammed Zakaria, was a leader of the Jenin Brigade, which includes militiamen from different Palestinian resistance movements, reports the EFE agency. Zakaria was the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, a historical leader of the Palestinian resistance who rose to prominence during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and was part of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the nationalist Al Fatah party.
Yesterday, a 16-year-old boy was shot dead by Israeli forces in Faraa and was identified by local authorities as Majed Fida Abu Zeina. A total of eight people have lost their lives in Tubas since last Wednesday. Eight others died in the city of Tulkarm and 21 in Jenin, the stronghold of Palestinian resistance movements and the area hardest hit by the ongoing Israeli operation.
In the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, troops have been carrying out an incursion for several days, demolishing houses and crushing vehicles with their bulldozers. “There is shooting and, thank God, we have gotten used to it, it is normal, it has become normal,” a resident of the camp told EFE.
The West Bank is the scene of the greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada, after 2023 was the deadliest year in two decades with more than 520 deaths. Since October 7 – the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel – 692 Palestinians have died in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Wafa’s tally. In addition to military incursions, violence by Jewish settlers residing in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory has also intensified, sometimes targeting the Palestinian population.
