Zionist Troops Kill More Palestinians During Raid on Refugee Camp
West Bank (Dispatches) – Zionist troops have shot dead two Palestinians during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, as tensions continue to escalate across the occupied territories.
Palestinian media outlets reported that Israeli military forces stormed the camp on Thursday morning, triggering violent confrontations with local residents.
The two victims were identified by Palestinian media as 58-years-old Jawad Bawatqa and 26-years-old Adham Jabarin.
Bawatqa was a teacher who was shot by a Zionist sniper and succumbed to his injuries.
Jabarin was also one of the commanders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a coalition of West Bank-based Palestinian armed groups.
The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed by Zionists so far in 2023 to 17, including four children.
Zionist troops launch raids on various cities of the occupied West Bank almost on a daily basis under the pretext of detaining what it calls “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.
In another development, dozens of Zionist settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Al-Quds, in yet another provocative move against Palestinian worshipers.
Eyewitnesses told Ma’an news agency that the raid by the radical settlers was carried out under heavy protection from the occupying regime’s troops. They said the settlers raised the occupying regime’s flags and performed provocative dances inside the vicinity.
The occupation troops also deployed soldiers inside and around the mosque to secure the settlers’ intrusions, said the eyewitnesses.
Zionist troops also attacked scores of Palestinians, including young men, in the mosque’s courtyards through the Bab al-Amoud area and the Old City. They tried to force the Palestinians to leave the site to allow the colonizers to tour it, leading to protests.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called upon Palestinians from all walks of life to mobilize en masse, increase their presence at the mosque’s compound, and protect the sacred site against recurrent incursions by settlers.
“We hail the Palestinian people in occupied Palestinian territories and across the West Bank who stand steadfast against the Israeli occupation violations and crimes,” it said in a statement.
Hamas also called on the Arab and Muslim Ummah, along with the free people of the world, to “support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and work toward protecting them against the Israeli occupation’s violations.”
Prisoner Released After 40 Years
Palestinian prisoner Maher Younis has been released after forty years in the Zionist regime’s jails for resistance against occupation forces.
Maher, 65, along with several others including his cousin, Karim Younis, was put behind bars in 1983 on charges of capturing and killing a Zionist trooper three years earlier.
Maher was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to 40 years in jail. He was ultimately released on Thursday, two weeks after Karim.
In his hometown of Arara, Maher was warmly welcomed despite the regime’s decision to ban any gathering around his house. His mother showered him with petals and adorned him with a traditional white gown, a necklace of red flowers, and a ring, which belonged to his father, who died in 2008.
“The best gift is to see our people walk on the path of reconciliation, and to live in freedom, as there was hope, after 40 years, to live in the homeland freely,” he said.
“The attempts of the [Zionist] occupation and its policy of diverting our joy will not succeed. Although there is a policy of arrogance, they will not prevent our joy. Palestine is implanted in our hearts and its flag is drawn in the hearts, and any attempts to remove it from us will not succeed,” added the former prisoner.
Despite the release of the two cousins, the Zionist regime is holding 23 Palestinians who have been imprisoned since before the signing of the Oslo accords between the Palestinians and Israel in 1993, which called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that Mohammad al-Tous, who has been incarcerated since 1985, has become the longest-serving Palestinian freedom fighter in the regime’s jails after the release of Karim and Maher.