At least ten people have died and more than a hundred have been injured this Wednesday during a raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the city of Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, in full escalation of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli forces were allegedly looking for members of a cell linked to the death of a soldier in October 2022. Last week, the authorities already arrested two alleged members of this group, reports ‘The Jerusalem Post’.
This Wednesday, they surrounded a house to make new arrests and clashes broke out that ended with at least ten deaths. In addition, according to sources cited by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, six of the more than 100 injured are in critical condition.
The local authorities have also included in the list of wounded two journalists who were supposedly covering the operation launched this Wednesday, in which the military used live fire and also resorted to tear gas and stun bombs.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has identified the deceased as men between the ages of 16 and 72. According to his own count, these new victims now add up to 59 people killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Authority presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, has blamed “the occupation forces” for committing new abuses and has called for help from the international community. “They must act immediately to stop Israeli crimes against our people,” he urged, in a statement in which he expressly called for more “pressure” from the United States.
For his part, a person in charge of the armed wing of Hamas, Abu Obeida, has warned that from Gaza they are observing the actions of the “enemy”: “Our patience is running out.” Islamic Jihad has also warned that “the blood of the Nablus martyrs has not been spilled in vain” and has advanced that it will respond, according to the newspaper ‘Haaretz’.
Rudeineh had previously responded to statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about peace with the Arab countries in the region, claiming that for that to happen, Israel must first respect the rights of the Palestinian people.
Ignoring the rights of the Palestinians and reaching individual agreements with other countries, Abu Rudeineh has assured, will not bring security or stability to anyone, he has indicated. The spokesman stressed that recent events have proven that resolving the conflict with Palestine involves guaranteeing the Palestinians their rights to freedom and independence.
Netanyahu assured on Sunday that peace with Saudi Arabia, as well as with the rest of the Arab countries in the region, is a key element in stopping “the Iranian threat.” “If we do this, we will have a better chance of normalizing and finally ending our dispute with the Palestinians,” he told a news conference.