RAMALLAH: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Sunday and injured 10 others during a raid in Nablus.
Mohammed Al-Azizi, 25, and Abdul-Rahman Sobh, 28, were killed by live ammunition.
Eyewitnesses said dozens of military vehicles, backed by reconnaissance drones, surrounded and stormed a house in the Al-Yasmina neighborhood with anti-tank missiles and heavy gunfire. The clashes lasted for three hours.
Nablus residents said the sounds of massive explosions could be heard inside the old city. Calls from mosque minarets urged Palestinian youths to confront the Israeli armed forces.
Hundreds of people took part in the funerals for the two men amid chants condemning the crime and calling for retribution and revenge. National factions in Nablus declared a strike in the governorates to mourn the souls of the two men.
The Israeli army published pictures of weapons and explosive devices it claimed to have found inside the house. It said it had used rockets at dawn to target the house.
Palestine Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyieh and PLO executive committee secretary-general, Hussein Al-Sheikh, condemned the Nablus raid. They considered it another crime committed by the occupying forces.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the heinous crime committed by the occupying forces in Nablus was linked to a long series of crimes by them and armed settler militias against the Palestinians.
Hamas mourned the deaths of Sobh and Al-Azizi, saying it would not allow the crimes of the occupying forces and its racist violations to pass. It called on Palestinians to repel the aggression of the occupation and for them to target its sites and sow terror in its settlements until it was defeated in Palestinian lands.
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine also mourned the two deaths, saying the flame of resistance would continue to shake the occupation’s security and confront it with all force and violence.
Tayseer Nasrallah, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member from Nablus, told Arab News that Nablus and the old city had not witnessed an Israeli army invasion of this magnitude and tyranny since 2002.
“There is no prospect for peace with this enemy as we are witnessing a daily cold-blooded, unjustified killing, assassinations, a farewell of martyrs, bombing, and destruction. Therefore, we have no choice but to return to resisting it with all forms of resistance, and popular resistance is no longer desired by our youth, who are demanding revenge for the martyrs, and it's not enough to deter."
Nasrallah said the violence of the Israeli army was creating a new Palestinian generation that was more violent and extremist than all previous generations in its resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“Fatah no longer has any patience for this killing, no matter the cost. If we lose our dignity every day, it is not important for us to lose our lives in return for stopping this criminal occupation.”
He called on the Palestinian leadership to implement the decisions of the PLO Central Council related to stopping all forms of relations with Israel and withdrawing Palestinian recognition of it.
“We brought down Trump and did not drop the deal of the century. The United States provides unlimited support to the Israeli governments to continue oppressing the Palestinians and brutalizing them,” he said.
