NABLUS (Dispatches) -- Two Palestinian brothers were martyred after a Zionist settler rammed into them in the occupied West Bank, according to multiple Palestinian sources.
The brothers, Muhammad and Muhannad Yousef Muteir, from the Qalandia refugee camp in Al-Quds, were martyred on Saturday night just south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
A car driven by a 50-year-old Zionist man hit the vehicle belonging to the two brothers, which had parked on the side of the road, according to the occupying regime of Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom.
The brothers were fixing a punctured tire when the settler drove his vehicle into them, the Wafa news agency reported.
Muhammad Muteir died at the scene, and Muhannad Muteir was pronounced dead at Hadassah Hospital in Al-Quds.
Palestinian politician Muhammad Shtayyeh called the attack a “horrific crime”. Palestinian news outlets said that the two brothers had been with their family in Nablus, preparing for their sister’s wedding next Friday.
Qalandia announced a general strike for Sunday.
In a press statement, the director of the Al-Quds Governorate office in Qalandia, Zakaria Fayala, said the settler “deliberately” sped up his car and rammed into the brothers, martyring one on the spot.
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian lawmaker, called the latest incident a “hit & run murder”, adding “more #IsraelCrimes with impunity”.
Earlier this week, the Zionist military confirmed martyring a 15-year-old Palestinian girl during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian resistance movements condemned the killing, vowing to take revenge on the occupying regime.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas mourned the deliberate killing offered its deep condolences to their families and friends.
“We are facing this crime, which is added to the series of daily and escalating Zionist crimes. The resistance will continue
to be our people’s option to curb the settlers and repel their attacks, crimes and provocations,” Hamas said. “The martyrs’ blood will remain a curse haunting the enemy, its soldiers and settlers in every street and alley of our occupied land.”
The resistance movement also called on Palestinians to respond to the heinous Israeli crime and to avenge the blood of the martyrs.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East Al-Quds as its capital.
The Palestinian Freedom Movement also condemned the actions of the Zionist regime and its settlers against the Palestinian people as a “dangerous” sign indicating that what the future holds is the “establishment of an extremely radical state in Israel,” which must be prevented by “a massive intifada of the Palestinian nation.”
The movement called on the Palestinian Authority to stop security coordination with the Zionist regime in political prosecutions and arrests, allowing the resistance to stand against the occupying regime and its crimes.
The latest killings come amid a spike in Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank this year and a resurgence of Palestinian armed resistance.
Since the beginning of the year, the number of Palestinians martyred by Israeli forces has risen to 218, including 52 in the Gaza Strip and 166 in the West Bank, making it one of the deadliest years on record for Palestinians since 2005.
The occupying regime of Israel has recently been conducting raid-and-arrest operations across the West Bank on a near-daily basis, often killing or wounding Palestinians in the process.
The operations have resulted in more than 2,500 arrests, according to Zionist authorities. Many of the deadly raids have occurred in the Jenin and Nablus areas.
The occupying regime of Israel’s “shoot-to-kill policy” has been widely criticized as the number of Palestinian deaths at the hands of its forces increases.
Meanwhile, 29 Zionists, including troops, have been killed by Palestinians in the same period, the highest number since 2008.