NABLUS (Dispatches) – A
Palestinian rights lawyer was martyred in clashes Wednesday close to Nablus, the fifth day of Zionist carnage in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Violence also erupted at a flashpoint religious site in Nablus, heightening tensions.
The Palestinian health ministry said human rights lawyer Muhammad Hassan Muhammad Assaf, 34, “died after being shot in the chest by the Israeli occupation army during the aggression on the city of Nablus”.
Witnesses told AFP he was standing by the roadside, having just taken his nephews to school, when he was hit by a bullet as Zionist troops fired while pulling out after an incursion into Nablus.
He was mourned as a “fierce defender of his people” by the body he worked for, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
The occupying regime’s military did not immediately comment but said earlier that its troops were conducting “operations” in Nablus, as well as other cities and villages of the West Bank.
Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency and Ambulance Department, said 17 Palestinians were injured after Zionist troops stormed the towns of Beita, al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, and Urif, in addition to Nablus.
Jibril said five Palestinians had been shot with live bullets. And one was run over by a Zionist military vehicle.
The Zionist troops also detained a number of Palestinian youths.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas delivered a strong-worded response to belligerent remarks by the regime’s war minister, Benny Gantz.
Gantz had claimed that the military faced no restrictions in using force against Palestinians across the occupied territories and was prepared for escalation against them on all fronts.
In response, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said such remarks “cannot frighten the Palestinian people and their resistance.”
Nor would such threats discourage the Palestinian people from keeping up their legitimate struggle against the occupying regime.
“This revolution will continue until our people achieve their major goals of liberation and return [to their homeland],” he added.
The regime has stepped up its deadly aggression across the Palestinian territories since the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, prompting Palestinians to ramp up their resistance operations in response.