According to Palestinian health sources, Israeli troops carried out a raid in the occupied West Bank during which at least 11 Palestinians were murdered, and numerous others were injured.
On Wednesday morning, as IDF entered the old city of Nablus, explosions and gunshots could be heard, setting off armed confrontations with Palestinian gunmen.
Three wanted militants who were holed up inside a residence and refused to surrender, according to the Israeli military, were slain.
Many of those slain outdoors, including two senior citizens, were civilians.
One of them, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, was Adnan Saabe Baara, 72. His body was allegedly seen in video footage lying near to bags of bread in a street in a popular market area.
The ministry reported that two further people were shot and killed: Abdul Hadi Ashqar, 61, and Mohammad Shaaban, 16.
Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, a different elderly man who had inhaled tear gas, passed away in the hospital on Wednesday night.
The Lions’ Den reported in a Telegram post that six members of their group and other militant organizations were murdered during the attack.
One more people were killed than during the bloodiest Israeli military raid on Jenin since 2005, which took place last month.
The large number of casualties from the raid—more than 80 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry—makes it even more noteworthy. They are currently receiving care from five different hospitals in Nablus.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, denounced the “massacre,” while Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman held Israel’s administration accountable for “this hazardous escalation, which is pushing the area into tension and an explosion.”
The Gaza Strip’s ruling militant organization, Hamas, issued a warning, saying it was “watching the rising crimes done by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank” and that it was “running out of patience.”
The four-hour-long raid occurred in the middle of the morning, when families and shoppers are frequently crammed into the ancient city’s winding lanes.
Khalil Shaheen, a resident, recalled being awakened by an explosion.
He remarked, “I peered out the window and saw special troops with dogs connecting wires, which I presume are for TNT [explosives], God knows.”
After receiving gunfire from Palestinian assailants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared that it had “upgraded” its operation. The building where the wanted militants were hiding was hit by shoulder-launched missiles fired by its soldiers, and it partially collapsed.
It said that the reason it took action right away was because it knew where one of the militants was in real-time, according to what is believed to be a geolocated Facebook post.
IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht told reporters during a press briefing, “We spotted the threat and we had to go in and finish the work.”
Nevertheless, Palestinian footage shared on social media also depict young males in the street who don’t appear to be carrying weapons and who look to be being fired upon as they flee, with one of them falling to the ground as gunshots are heard. The footage was labeled “difficult” by the IDF, who also stated that it was being examined.
Muhammad Junaidi, a commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hussam Isleem, another important militant leader, were two among the terrorists inside the building that was surrounded.
The IDF stated that they were suspected of carrying out past shooting attacks, including one in the West Bank last October that resulted in the death of an Israeli soldier, along with the third militant, Walid Dkhail, and of plotting other attacks in the near future. Last Thursday, two other individuals were detained in Nablus.
Isleem recorded an audio message on WhatsApp during the raid that was posted to social media and read: “We’re in difficulty, but we’re not going to give up. We will not surrender our firearms. I’m going to die a martyr. After us, continue carrying a firearm.”
Israeli forces had earlier this month invaded Isleem’s home, and his family had been questioned. Afterward, his father informed Palestinian media that the authorities had warned him that his son would be killed unless he turned himself in.
Isleem and Junaidi were both involved in the Lions’ Den, a brand-new militant organization that surfaced in Nablus during the past year as control by the official security forces of the Palestinian Authority fell apart.
The teenage shooters, like a similar group in the adjacent city of Jenin, used TikTok and Telegram to reach out to a new generation of Palestinians with a message of violent resistance against the Israeli occupation.
Israel claims to be attempting to stop the recent surge of violent attacks against Israelis by targeting certain areas of both cities in rounds of search, arrest, and intelligence collecting raids.
More than 60 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have died so far this year, whereas 11 people have died as a result of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
The deadly raid on Nablus on Wednesday is yet another indicator that recent US-led efforts to defuse tensions have failed.
The Palestinian Authority gave up this week trying to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution criticizing the new nationalist government of Israel for its intentions to build more settlements in the West Bank.
Israel then said that it would not announce any new settlements in the upcoming months as part of an apparent accord. Israel was also supposed to lessen the severity of its raids into Palestinian cities, according to sources cited in Israeli media.
