Israeli raid kills 6 in West Bank
JERUSALEM — A raid by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin aimed at arresting a suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers last month spiraled into violence that left six Palestinians dead Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The suspect, Abd al-Fattah Kharousha, 49, was listed as among the dead by Palestinian health officials.
An Israeli military spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules, described Kharousha as an operative of the Islamist militant group Hamas. Hamas confirmed that he had been a member of its military wing, and Palestinian media reported that he had spent nine years in Israeli prisons and was released in December 2022.
The brothers, Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, both in their early 20s, were killed Feb. 26 as they drove through the Palestinian village of Huwara in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli military operation on Tuesday ended in a deadly firefight, the latest in a series of daytime raids that have resulted in a high Palestinian death toll.
Armed Palestinian militant groups in Jenin said on Telegram, the messaging platform, that they had clashed with the Israeli forces, using firearms and explosive devices, and that they had downed two military drones.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces had used shoulder-fired missiles against a residence in the Jenin refugee camp, where the suspect in the brothers’ killing was barricaded. Gunmen fired toward the forces, who responded with live fire, the statement said. Some gunmen were seen shooting at the soldiers from an ambulance, using the vehicle as a shield.
Hospitals in Jenin were treating at least 16 Palestinians for injuries sustained during the raid, health officials said. Israeli military and police officials said two members of a special forces unit were injured in the fighting.
Israeli forces operated in parallel in the city of Nablus, just north of Huwara, on Tuesday and arrested two sons of Kharousha. The military said they were accused of aiding and planning the attack on the brothers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the forces for their “surgical” operation. “Whoever harms us will pay the price,” he said in a video statement.
The past two months have been marked by escalating violence across the West Bank.
The killing of the Yaniv brothers, who were residents of a Jewish settlement near Huwara, prompted a revenge attack by Jewish settlers on Huwara and surrounding Palestinian villages. The settlers burned and vandalized at least 200 buildings in four Palestinian villages, according to tallies from Israeli rights groups and Palestinian officials. One Palestinian man was killed, although it remains unclear who shot him.
Tuesday’s raid came despite regional and international efforts to calm tensions between Israel and the West Bank. The brothers’ killing and the revenge attacks came on a day when Palestinian and other Arab officials took part in a summit in Jordan, along with senior U.S. representatives, to discuss ways to soothe the hostility in the region.
More settler violence was reported in Huwara on Monday and Tuesday, as well as stone throwing by Palestinians, as Jews celebrated the holiday of Purim, a festival commemorating the salvation of the Jewish community from annihilation in the ancient Persian Empire.
The violence has set the area on edge as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches. The first months of 2023 have already proved the deadliest in years for both Palestinians and Israelis, and in the past, tensions during Ramadan have led to broader conflagrations.