WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Four Palestinians were martyred in a raid by Zionist troops on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, including a teenage boy, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Among those killed was 16-year-old Omar Muhammad Awadin, as well as Youssef Saleh Barakat Shreim, Nidal Amin Zaidan Khazem, and Louay Khalil al-Zughair.
Eighteen people with gunshot wounds were also hospitalized, four of them in serious condition, said the ministry.
The Zionist regime’s army acknowledged that regime troops “are currently operating in the Jenin refugee camp”.
Hamas resistance movement mourned the death of the four Palestinians killed in the Jenin raid.
“The cowardly assassination of two resistance leaders [in the raid] will not go unpunished,” the movement said in a statement.
“The occupying regime is certain that the response to its actions is imminent, and that resistance fighters with continue their struggle until full liberation [of Palestinian lands],” Hamas added.
“Our steadfast people will not sit idly by, and will continue to defend Al-Quds and the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Resistance fighters well know the path and how to confront the Occupation,” the resistance movement noted.
Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu also said in a statement that the Tel Aviv regime’s targeted killing of two resistance commanders in Jenin raid will not go unanswered.
He underlined that Palestinians and resistance groups are fully capable of delivering a stinging blow to Israel and making it pay a heavy price for its crimes.
“The Palestinian resistance in the West Bank will persist. No one will be able to either stop its expansion or prevent it from responding to the crimes of the occupying Israeli regime,” Qanu said.
Tensions have been high in the occupied territories in recent months as Zionist attacks in the West Bank intensify, and Palestinian resistance grows.
Thursday’s shootings bring the number of Palestinians martyred by Zionits this year to at least 85, including 16 children.
It’s the bloodiest start to a year since 2000, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Fears are growing that there could be a wider outbreak of violence in April when Passover, Easter, and Ramadan all overlap.
Most of the raids have focused on Nablus and Jenin, where Zionist troops have been trying to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance in the occupied cities.
Local and international rights groups have condemned the occupying regime’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against Palestinians.