Once the tit-for-tat between Israel and Iran of recent days has been left behind and there is no indication this Saturday that the escalation between both countries will continue, Israel has focused its focus on the West Bank. Since Thursday night, its army has been carrying out one of the largest raids in this Palestinian territory since the start of the war on October 7, resulting in “ten terrorists” dead in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in the town of Tulkarem, as announced this Saturday.
Israeli forces also arrested eight people, destroyed an explosives laboratory and confiscated numerous weapons and military equipment, according to a military statement. Eight soldiers and one border police agent were injured during the operation. The Palestinian Red Crescent has been reporting injuries during the Israeli raid for two days and confirmed the death of at least one person.
Journalists deployed at the scene saw at least three drones flying over Nur Shams, where at least 7,000 people live. Israeli military vehicles were gathered there and bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard. At least three houses were bombed.
The al Aqsa Martyrs militia group confirmed on social media the death of Tulkarem brigade leader Mohamed Yaber, alias “Abu Shuya,” who was apparently the target of the Israeli assault on the enclave. The Tulkarm Brigades group, which includes militants from numerous Palestinian factions, reported that its fighters were still exchanging fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and so far in 2024 at least 143 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, most of them alleged militiamen or attackers, but also civilians, including around thirty minors.
The Israeli army intensified its already frequent incursions into the occupied West Bank after the Hamas attack on October 7 and, since then, some 473 Palestinians have died in violent incidents with Israel, mainly with troops but also with settlers. The latest were recorded this Saturday when a group of settlers shot three Palestinians, one died and the other two were wounded, in the village of Al Sawiya, south of Nablus, reported the Palestinian agency Wafa.
Dozens of settlers from the Ali settlement, also located south of Nablus, attacked citizens’ houses in the western part of the village, according to the agency, citing witnesses. A 50-year-old person was shot in the chest and a 26-year-old man was shot in the face. Israeli settlers and soldiers later attacked the ambulance transporting the wounded and killed one of its drivers, identified as Muhamad Awad Allah Muhamd Musa, 50, according to Wafa, which cites emergency services worker Bashar Qariuti. On April 15, two Palestinians were killed in another attack by settlers in the town of Jirbet al Tawil, in the northern West Bank.
On the other hand, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which governs the West Bank and has the recognition of the international community but is increasingly questioned by the Palestinians, has condemned this Saturday the United States veto of Palestine’s entry as a full member. law at the UN. ANP President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will “review bilateral relations” with Washington. The US veto has “awakened unprecedented anger among Palestinians and the people of the region, potentially pushing the region towards greater instability, chaos and terrorism,” the Palestinian president warned in an interview with Wafa.
Regarding the Gaza Strip, an Israeli attack left nine dead, including six children, between one and 16 years old, as well as two women and a man, all members of the same family, during the night from Friday to Saturday in Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, reported the Civil Defense of the Palestinian territory. These victims are in addition to the at least 37 people who died and the 68 who were injured in the Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours in the strip, where Israel plans a new incursion in the south.
Meanwhile, in the Dolmabahçe palace, on the banks of the Bosphorus, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met this Saturday in Istanbul with the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniye, assuring him of his support to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and finally a Palestinian State, the Turkish Presidency reported in a statement.
