NABLUS, Palestinian Territories: Israeli police killed at least four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.
The Palestinian health ministry reported in a statement Wednesday that “four martyrs shot by the occupation in Nablus have been transferred to Rafidia Government Hospital.”
It later said the men were aged between 31 and 43 years old.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported the deaths of four people, but Israeli security forces said five were killed Wednesday.
Officers from an elite police unit “killed five wanted terrorists in Nablus,” the Israeli police, army and Shin Bet domestic security service said in a joint statement.
The statement added that among those killed was the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade in the Balata refugee camp adjacent to the city.
It said that during a joint operation involving army and police force, coordinated by Shin Bet, police killed five armed men “who presented a danger for our forces.”
“The eliminated terrorists were involved in the planning and exporting of terrorist activity against civilians and army forces,” the statement added.
Nablus governor Ghassan Daghlas however told AFP that “the four martyrs are ordinary citizens who were among the people and were killed among the people in cold blood.”
He called the killing “a cowardly and deliberate assassination.”
He added that one man was from Balata camp, while the remaining three were from the Askar camp in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 705 Palestinians in the West Bank since, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israeli officials say at least 24 Israelis, civilians or members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinian militants or in Israeli military operations over the same period in the West Bank.
At least four Palestinians killed in Israeli raid on West Bank
https://arab.news/8qxdn
At least four Palestinians killed in Israeli raid on West Bank
- Nablus governor Ghassan Daghlas said that ‘the four martyrs are ordinary citizens who were among the people and were killed among the people in cold blood’
- Daghlas said that that one man was from Balata camp, while the remaining three were from the Askar camp in the West Bank
Prosecutors indict 12 Israeli suspects in Gaza smuggling case
- A Justice Ministry statement said the suspects had been ‘willfully ignoring the direct contribution of this activity to the strengthening of terrorist organizations in the Strip,’ notably Hamas
JERUSALEM: Prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges against 12 Israeli suspects including reservist soldiers for offenses including “assisting the enemy in wartime,” over the alleged smuggling of prohibited goods into war-shattered Gaza.
Israel controls the entry of all goods and people into the besieged Palestinian territory, where humanitarian conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which came into effect on October 10.
A Justice Ministry statement said the smuggled goods were worth millions of Israeli shekels and included cartons of cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, communication cables, car parts and more.
It described the operation as a “serious case of organized, systematic, and sophisticated smuggling of various goods into the Gaza Strip for profit,” which began in the summer of 2025, when war was still raging in Gaza.
The Justice Ministry statement said charges had been filed against 12 individuals and one company.
A joint statement from the police and Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency confirmed they had “arrested several Israeli citizens and Gaza Strip residents who smuggled goods prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip.”
It said those arrested included reservists in the Israeli military.
The statement added that the suspects had been “willfully ignoring the direct contribution of this activity to the strengthening of terrorist organizations in the Strip,” notably Hamas.
“This morning (Wednesday), the Southern District Prosecutor’s Office filed indictments against 12 of the suspects for offenses including assisting the enemy in wartime, performing actions with property for terrorist purposes, obtaining something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, bribery offenses, and economic offenses,” it added.
Israeli media reported that the brother of Israel’s Shin Bet chief, David Zini, was allegedly linked to smuggling cigarettes into Gaza.
Reports said that Bezalel Zini was expected to be indicted on Thursday.
