9 Palestinians killed during Israeli invasion of Jenin
NINE Palestinians were killed yesterday during the invasion of Jenin in Palestine in one of the deadliest days in the occupied West Bank since Israeli raids intensified at the start of last year.
A woman aged 60 was reported among the dead.
The Israeli forces allegedly prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded by shooting at medical personnel.
The embassy of the State of Palestine in Harare has condemned the assassination committed by the Israeli apartheid occupation forces.
The Ambassador of Palestine to Zimbabwe Mr Tamer Almassri said the Israeli forces also fired tear gas bombs towards the paediatric section of Jenin Government Hospital, causing suffocation cases from gas inhalation among Palestinians, including mothers and children.
“The latest crime is a continuity of Israel’s ongoing aggression on the Palestinian people as well as an act of war that should not be tolerated,” he said.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances were initially unable to reach the wounded because Israeli troops restricted access to the scene.
According to Al Jazeera, The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 20 others were wounded with live ammunition in the raid, which Palestinians have described as a “massacre”.
The Israel Defence Forces said its troops entered Jenin to arrest an Islamic Jihad “terror squad”, who it accused of being “heavily involved in planning and executing multiple major terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers”..
Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade – an armed militia affiliated with the Palestinian political party Fatah – said the dead included one of its fighters, Izz al-Din Salahat.
According to the health ministry, another person, Saeb Azriqi, 24, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
It said the situation on the ground was very difficult, with injured people continuously reaching hospitals, as it accused Israeli forces of obstructing ambulances and medics.
“There is an invasion that is unprecedented … in terms of how large it is and the number of injuries,” Wissam Baker, head of Jenin public hospital, told Al Jazeera.
“The ambulance driver tried to get to one of the martyrs who was on the floor, but the Israeli forces shot directly at the ambulance and prevented them from approaching him,” Baker continued.