RAMALLAH (Dispatches) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday martyred three Palestinians in Nablus city in the occupied West Bank during a targeted operation, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, calling it an “assassination”.
The three men were identified as Adham Mabrouka, Ashraf Mubaslat and Muhammad al-Dakhil, all members of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
They were shot while driving in a vehicle with a fourth person who was detained, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The occupying regime of Israel’s security service said it conducted a joint operation targeting Palestinian fighters who carried out shooting attacks against Israeli targets in recent weeks.
A video from the location of the incident in the Makhfiya neighborhood in Nablus showed a car pierced with dozens of bullet holes, which was reportedly the vehicle used by the four men when they were assassinated.
Batoul Koussa, an eyewitness who lives in the area, told Middle East Eye that two private vehicles, a dark blue Caddy and a yellow minibus with Palestinian plates, drove towards the Al-Makhfiya junction before Zionist troops got out and opened fire in broad daylight.
They surrounded the vehicle carrying the Palestinian men and started shooting intensely at it from all directions and from point-blank range. Koussa said more than 80 bullets were fired at the vehicle.
Zionist troops withdrew after they confirmed the death of the three young men who were inside the vehicle.
Their bodies were taken to Rafidia hospital where they were confirmed dead as hundreds of people gathered to show solidarity with the family.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the “field execution” and slammed the occupying regime of Israel for the “heinous brutality”.
“This crime is part of a series of criminal field executions carried out by the occupation forces in accordance with the instructions and directives of the political and military level,” it said in a statement.
The governor of Nablus, Ibrahim Ramadan, announced a day of mourning and a city-wide strike Wednesday.
Several Palestinian factions condemned the attack, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing to which the three men belonged to, said it will meet “blood with blood,” in a statement.
The assassinations come amid increasing settler violence across the West Bank in recent months, particularly near Nablus.
Hamas urged all Palestinian groups to stage an “intense reprisal”.
“The enemy’s atrocity entails setting fire to the places that host Zionist servicemen and settlers,” it said in a statement.
The resistance group also called for mass participation in the funeral of the three Palestinians.
“Let it be a march that infuriates the enemy, and sends a message that we are the righteous ones, and that resistance is our path to restore the rights that have been taken from us,” it said.
Jasem al-Barghouti, a Hama official based in the West Bank, said the atrocity proved that resistance is the only option that could protect the Palestinian nation.
The official hit out at the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Zionist regime, saying the coordination only empowered the regime to conduct more such atrocities against the Palestinians.
Zionist war minister Benny Gantz praised the Israeli military and other organizations complicit in the criminal operation, which he described as “preventive” and “proactive.”