AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s military shot and killed three Palestinians during arrest raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, the latest bloodshed in months of rising aggression by the occupying regime.
The military, which has been carrying out near-nightly raids in the territory since early last year, said its troops opened fire at Palestinians on rooftops. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the martyred Palestinian as Samir Aslan, 41.
Aslan’s sister, Noura Aslan, said Zionist troops broke into their house at 2:30 a.m. to arrest his 18-year-old son, Ramzi. As Ramzi was being hauled away, his father sprinted to the rooftop to see what was happening, she said. Within moments, a Zionist sniper shot him in the back.
Aslan’s wife called an ambulance, but Noura said the army initially prevented medics from reaching the house. As Aslan was bleeding, his family dragged his body down the stairs and called for help. An ambulance picked him up some 20 minutes later, Noura said.
The Zionist troops also raided the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday, entering the village of Qabatiya south of the flash point city of Jenin and surrounding a house in the town. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that Zionist troops fatally shot 25-year-old Habib Kamil and 18-year-old Abdel Hadi Nazal.
Over the past months, the Zionist regime has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.
According to the United Nations, the number of Palestinians killed by the Zionist regime in the West Bank in 2022 was the highest in 16 years.
Reacting to fresh crimes by the regime, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said in a statement that Palestinian people will continue to defend themselves and Al-Aqsa Mosque until the end of the occupation and liberation of holy sites.
The Zionist regime’s outgoing army chief on Friday warned against plans by Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition to grant more control to pro-settler lawmakers and make other changes to the regime’s ‘security’ establishment, joining a loud chorus of criticism against the most right-wing government in the country’s history.
In several interviews with Israeli news outlets just days before he steps down, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi took unusually sharp aim at Netanyahu’s coalition agreements with hard-line settler activists who seek to entrench the regime’s rule in the occupied West Bank, restructure the war ministry and control a special paramilitary police unit.
“This is likely to cause damage and adversely affect our preparedness for war,” Kochavi told the Israeli news site Ynet.
The coalition deals have sparked furor from many segments of the occupying regime.