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RAMALLAH: Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian men during a raid in the occupied West Bank early on Saturday, while a third Palestinian died of wounds sustained in a separate Israeli operation two weeks earlier, Palestinian medical officials said.
The two victims were in a vehicle when they were targeted. The deaths bring to 12, including three children, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far this year.
The Jenin Brigade said in a statement that the killing of the three young men will not go unpunished.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, Palestinian prime minister, called for international protection from Israeli forces’ “oppression.”
Gaza ruling party Hamas urged Palestinians “to continue resisting the Israeli occupation with all means possible.”
In a statement, it said: “We emphasize that the continued aggressive policy adopted by the fascist Israeli occupation government against the Palestinian people and their lands and holy sites will not grant it a sense of purported security.”
Such a policy, it added, would not succeed in undermining the steadfastness and resilience of Palestinians.
Rawhi Fattouh, president of the Palestinian National Council, said in a statement: “The pace of fascist terrorism in Israel is escalating through the execution and murder policies of the new extremist government.
“The fascist occupation is trying, through its bloody terror, daily executions, continuous aggression on the Palestinian lands, and public threats against our prisoners, to export its internal crises.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that the Israeli “occupation practices extrajudicial killings, field executions, and fires live bullets at Palestinian citizens,” with instructions to “kill and degrade the lives of citizens coming from the political and military echelons of the occupying state.”
It called on the international community and the US administration to exert real pressure on Israel to “stop its bloody escalation against our people.”
The ministry urged the International Criminal Court to quickly complete its investigations, and hold Israel and the perpetrators to account.
An increase in the number of killings indicates that the current year will be worse than 2022, which was considered bloodier than 2021.
Mustafa Al-Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Movement, denounced the “criminality of the Israeli occupation army, which deliberately executes the Palestinian people in cold blood every day” during its incursions into cities, camps and villages in the West Bank.
However, he said that these daily killings, carried out at the behest of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s new security minister, and other extremists in the Israeli government, will not slow the pace of resistance.
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians protesting against the seizing of Palestinian lands in Zuwaidin, Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, by settlers were halted by Israeli troops, who fired stun grenades and tear gas to break up the demonstration.
Israeli forces set up checkpoints in the area and also detained Mashhour Al-Wahwah, a photographer with the Palestinian Wafa news agency, for several hours.
The latest killings by the Israeli army coincided with a violent escalation of settler attacks on Palestinians.
On Friday afternoon, young settlers attacked a group of Palestinians, accompanied by American, French and Italian activists, who were taking part in a march near Jericho. Some sustained moderate injuries and were treated in hospital.
Palestinians living inside Israel accuse the new Israeli government of seeking to seize Negev (southern Israel) through racist laws, policies and measures aimed at more than 300,000 Bedouin citizens living there.
In 2013, 697 homes were demolished in the Negev, with the number rising to 1,073 in 2014, 982 in 2015, 1,158 in 2016, and 3,000 in 2021.
Palestinian citizens say that Israel considers their presence in the Negev dangerous.
They believe that the escalation of the right-wing Israeli government’s policies will force them into clashes, as happened a year ago.
Yousef Jabarin, a former Knesset member and university law professor, told Arab News that current right-wing ministers in the Israeli government began to incite and intimidate Palestinians in the Negev even before taking office.
He said that Israel has so far refused to recognize more than 40 Palestinian villages and towns there, some of which were built and established before the state of Israel came into being, and refuses to provide them with essential services.
“There is fear that this government will adopt a policy of displacement against the Palestinian residents of the Negev, and the Negev will be a hot spot of friction if the extremists in this government try to implement their plans against the Palestinians in the Negev,” Jabarin said.