WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s troops raided the Jalazone refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday and fired at least 30 bullets at three young Palestinians in their vehicle, Wafa has reported. Two of the Palestinians were killed, while the third was wounded.

The two dead men were identified as Basel Basbous, 19, and Khaled Anbar, 22, both residents of Jalazone. The man who was wounded was Rafat Habash, 19, from Beir Zeit. All three were reported to be construction workers.

The Zionist troops, said Wafa, took the bodies of the murdered Palestinians away and detained Habash.

These killings take the number of Palestinians killed by the occupying regime since the beginning of 2022 to 160.

The Israeli regime’s military has stepped up its deadly raids on the local population in and around the flashpoint West Bank.

On Saturday, following the fatal shooting of Palestinian teenager Fayez Khaled Damdum in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian foreign ministry urged international protection for Palestinians, slamming the regime’s policy of willful killing of Palestinian people.

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces opened fire on the 18-year-old, while he was driving a motorbike in the town of al-Eizariya in the south-central part of the occupied West Bank.

The ministry held the occupying regime fully and directly responsible for “this heinous crime and other crimes,” saying that it would work with all international organizations, including the United Nations, so it can hold Israel accountable for all of its crimes.

The ministry also urged the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to enable international protection for “our defenseless people” in the face of Tel Aviv’s atrocities.

 

‘Crime Not to Go Unpunished’

 

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has strongly condemned the fatal shooting of the two Palestinian men, stressing that “such criminal acts will not go unpunished.”

“This cowardly targeted killing reflects the state of panic that has gripped the occupying regime in the wake of daily defeats of its security apparatus throughout the West Bank and al-Quds, especially as resistance fighters have ramped up their operations,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.

“Today’s crime is in line with the different crimes that our nation is exposed to on a daily basis, namely raids, detentions, expansion of illegal settlements as well as Judaization activities in Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. This requires unified and comprehensive resistance on the part of all Palestinians to be stopped,” the statement.

Hamas then paid tribute to all Palestinian resistance fighters who courageously stand against Israeli military forces and settlers’ attacks, and defend their land, people and sanctities.