(Nablus) The Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Tuesday that three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces firing in the occupied northern West Bank, an operation against a “terrorist cell”, according to the Jewish state.
Posted at 12:14 p.m.
“Three citizens” were killed by Israeli forces who “fired on them” in Nablus, the Palestinian ministry said in a short statement, without detailing the circumstances of the facts.
Terrorists, say police
The Israeli border police claimed that a “terrorist cell” had been “neutralized” in Nablus (north) during a joint operation by several police and army units.
Three “armed” people in a vehicle, who first tried to open fire in the direction of the Israeli forces, were killed during this operation. Two weapons were seized, border police added.
“This cell was responsible for a series of armed attacks in the area against the army and against Israeli civilians in recent weeks,” police said in a statement. No member of the Israeli forces was injured, according to this source.
“Our forces have once again proven today that terrorists do not have impunity. Anyone who attacks us will be attacked,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted.
His Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, also welcomed the operation, saying in a statement that he had “recently” “ordered the increase in counter-terrorism activities in the light of armed attacks” in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. since 1967 by Israel.
The Palestinian Authority denounced a “brutal and heinous crime”, “reflecting the brutality and racism” of the Jewish state.
According to sources within the Palestinian Fatah party, the three men were members of its armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
After being brought to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, their remains were taken outside the establishment where they were carried by a bereaved crowd, AFP journalists noted.
The windshield of the vehicle in which the three men were was riddled with dozens of bullets, they also found.
Clashes with the Israeli army break out regularly in the West Bank, on the sidelines of demonstrations against Israeli colonization or arrests in Palestinian localities by Israeli security forces.
More than 2.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. About 475,000 Israelis also live in this Palestinian territory, in settlements deemed illegal by international law.