Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli military raid in Nablus, occupied West Bank

Nine Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military raid in Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, on Wednesday February 22, according to a new report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to the latter, about 80 people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds in various hospitals in the city. Israeli forces left the city before 1:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. Paris time), after a three-hour incursion into this autonomous Palestinian area, according to AFP journalists on the spot.

One of them said he saw, in the center of Nablus, Israeli soldiers firing tear gas grenades in the direction of young Palestinians. They threw stones at military vehicles and burned tires.

A resurgence of violence since the beginning of the year

The Israeli forces have been increasing for almost a year what they present as “anti-terrorist” operations, in search of “suspects” in the northern West Bank, particularly in Nablus and Jenin, strongholds of Palestinian armed groups. The last major Israeli operation in Nablus took place last October. Five Palestinians were then killed during a raid targeting the armed group Areen al-Oussoud (“The Den of the Lions”). In a message on Telegram, the movement claimed to have taken part in clashes with Israeli forces, and carried out “a battle of honor”.

These latest clashes come against a backdrop of renewed violence since the beginning of the year in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel. At the end of January, ten Palestinians, including combatants and a civilian in her 60s, were killed during an incursion into the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Exchanges of fire between armed groups in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army, as well as an attack near a synagogue in East Jerusalem followed.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 55 Palestinians and nine Israeli civilians, according to an AFP tally.