RAMALLAH: Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians, including a 57-year-old schoolteacher, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday during a dawn raid in the flashpoint city of Jenin, officials and medics have said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on the world’s countries to intervene and try and prevent the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
He also held Israel fully responsible for the continuation of such crimes.
Teacher Jawad Bawakna, the father of six, and Adham Jabarin, 28, were both shot in the Jenin refugee camp.
The two deaths bring to 17 the number of Palestinian fatalities since the start of the year, including four children. Nine of the fatalities have been in Jenin.
Fifteen people were arrested during the raid.
A large force of the Israeli army stormed the camp and deployed snipers on the roofs of several houses and buildings overlooking it.
Special Israeli units infiltrated a residential building at the camp’s entrance, stormed several apartments, and detained residents, seizing their mobile phones.
Ata Abu Rumaila, Fatah secretary in Jenin, said that Israeli forces opened fire on the teacher while he was trying to provide first aid to Jabarin.
Ambulance crews were prevented from entering the camp to provide treatment and transfer the injured to the hospital, and they were moved in a private vehicle.
Violent confrontations then broke out between the young men in the camp and the Israeli forces, and three people were wounded by live ammunition as the army arrested citizens.
The Fatah movement and resistance forces in Jenin have declared a period of mourning for the two dead.
Wissam Bakr, director of Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin, said that the Israeli army fired bullets at the hospital, which threatened the lives of patients and doctors.
Shtayyeh condemned the occupation forces’ targeting of the hospital and called on the World Health Organization and other international bodies to condemn the crimes.
Mahmoud Al-Aloul, the Fatah movement’s deputy leader, said that the occupation forces’ actions illustrated that it was no longer acceptable for the status quo to continue.
He said several scenarios were being discussed within the leadership, but pointed out that resistance to the occupation was the most viable option.
Maj. Gen. Akram Rajoub, governor of Jenin, said that executing citizens in the Jenin camp showed that killing was the priority of the Israeli government.
He told Arab News: “It is clear that there is more targeting of Jenin than any other city in the West Bank, and the ferocity, violence, and number of incursions are increasing in an unprecedented way.
“The volume of forces and military vehicles that storm the city, its camp, and its villages increases every time.”
He added that the state of violence in Jenin negatively impacts all aspects of security, economic and social life in the city.
He added: “Currently, I am walking in the streets of Jenin, and all the stores are closed.
“In such an atmosphere, no one comes to shop in the city, not even the Palestinians who live in neighboring Israeli cities. They had got used to coming to shop and reviving the city’s economy.
“Jenin, after these heinous killings, is like a ghost city.”
Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee Secretary-General, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said that President Mahmoud Abbas planned to ask US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to encourage the Israelis to cease their crimes, when the two meet in Ramallah.
Separately, Maher Younis, 65, was released from an Israeli prison on Thursday after serving 40 years.
Younis was released from Beersheba Prison in southern Israel shortly after dawn, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.
Younis was sentenced on Jan. 18, 1983, following his resistance to Israel and his affiliation with the Fatah movement.
He said: “I was hoping that when I got out of captivity after 40 years, I would see my country liberated. I wish freedom for all prisoners.”
The Israeli police prevented Younis’ family from celebrating his release.
However, large crowds from the village of Ara and the Arab community flocked to the family’s house to celebrate his freedom despite police threats.
