RAMALLAH: Israeli troops killed two Palestinian youths in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The deadly raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarem was the latest episode in Israeli-Palestinian violence that has surged since last year.
The two victims shot by Israeli forces — Samer Al-Shafei and Hamza Kharyoush, both aged 22 — arrived at Thabet Thabet government hospital in the northern West Bank, the ministry added.
Al-Shafei was hit by bullets to the neck, chest and abdomen, while Kharyoush was shot in the chest, abdomen and left foot.
A video clip documented the Israeli army’s abuse of the bodies of the two men, ensuring their death before withdrawing from the place, witnesses said.
A comprehensive strike called by the Fatah movement took place in the city, suburbs, and camps of Tulkarem in mourning of the deaths of Al-Shafei and Kharyoush.
Fatah denounced the attack, describing it as one of a series of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
Saturday’s deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of this year to 110, including 20 children and two women.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said that Al-Shafei and Kharyoush are two new victims of the organized terrorism practiced by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that the Israeli occupation’s crime in the Tulkarem camp will not pass without a response from the Palestinian people, who continue to fight for freedom.
Qassem said that the Israeli government is determined to escalate tensions through aggression against the Palestinian land, people and sanctities.
The Islamic Jihad movement demanded that Palestinians continue to confront the Israeli army’s aggression.
The Israeli army claimed that Kharyoush and Al-Shafei were involved in a shooting near the settlement of Avni Hefetz, adjacent to Tulkarem.
The army said it managed to arrest two other young men after one of them was injured in the raid into the camp, during which two M-16 rifles, protective vests and clips for ammunition were found.
The Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, claimed that Hamas is leading a significant incitement campaign using training videos to motivate Palestinian youths to carry out attacks against settlers and the Israeli army. Hamas broadcasts the videos through various social media platforms, the army alleged.
Shin Bet said that Hamas monitors the mood of the Israeli public and works to exploit internal events to deliver messages of incitement and threats.
Hamas has a vast online presence, as well as a large following of youths whom it incites to action, Shin Bet said, adding that the agency was seeking to close down the organization’s various channels and platforms.
Retired Maj. Gen. Adnan Al-Damiri from the city of Tulkarem, who is a former spokesperson for the Palestinian security services, told Arab News that Israeli escalation of violence against Palestinian activists aims to deliver a message to the Israeli right-wing public that the army was implementing a plan to eliminate Palestinian militants who pose a threat to the security of Israel.
It is also a message to Palestinian youths that the Israeli army has changed its strategy from arresting them to killing them, and a message to the world that the young Palestinian men who are killed by Israel are beyond the control of the Palestinian security services, he added.
The Israeli army is trying to portray that it is not involved in a war against the Palestinian Authority but against a group that does not belong to any of the traditional Palestinian organizations, said Al-Damiri.
He said he expects the series of assassinations of Palestinian resistance fighters to continue as part of an attempt by the Israeli army and security services to eliminate militants north of the West Bank.
In Nablus, hundreds participated in the funeral of three Palestinians from the Lions’ Den armed group, whose bodies were released on Friday by the Israeli army after a 55-day detention.
The Israeli army killed Jihad, Uday Al-Shami and Mohammed Dabeek on March 12 after opening fire on the vehicle they were traveling in near a military checkpoint southwest of Nablus.
Palestinians say that the Israeli authorities are still holding the bodies of 133 Palestinians since 2015, including the bodies of 12 prisoners who died in Israeli prisons, 12 children and a woman.
Saturday’s killings took place as the Israeli army continued to besiege the city of Jericho for the 15th day in a row.
The siege has caused heavy agricultural and tourism losses to the city’s residents, who depend on both sectors for their primary income.
Separately, Palestinian sources said that four Palestinians were injured after settlers and the Israeli army assaulted them in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
