On Thursday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters from the Islamist movement, Hamas, in a military operation carried out in the occupied West Bank. The three men were accused of having shot dead three Israeli-British women last month in the West Bank town of Hamra. Hassan Qatnani, Moaz al Masri, and Ibrahim Jibril were identified as those responsible for the murder of a British-Israeli woman and her two daughters. The Israel army had deployed jointly with the police and the Shin Bet security service in an operation that lasted for about an hour and a half. Abdelatif al Qanu, a spokesman for Hamas, issued a statement in response, saying that “the resistance will move forward with determination” to “avenge the blood of the martyrs.”
Lucy Dee, 48, and her daughters Rina and Maia, who were residing in the Israeli settlement of Efrat, near Bethlehem, were the victims of the attack last month. The women were shot dead in the northern West Bank. Following the recent killing of the three Palestinian men, Lucy’s widower, Leo Dee, expressed his consolation. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as “a message to those who attack us and those who want to attack us”. Netanyahu said that “No matter where they try to hide, we will find them.”
The northern West Bank, which is a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has been the scene of violent acts for more than a year. In February of this year, 11 Palestinians, including fighters, were killed, and more than 80 people were wounded, in an Israeli attack on Nablus. This was the deadliest attack since 2005.
In another incident that took place in Huwara, south of Nablus, security forces shot dead a 26-year-old Palestinian woman who had stabbed an Israeli soldier. The 20-year-old soldier was hospitalised. Meanwhile, earlier this week, there was an outbreak of violence between armed groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel, following the death by hunger strike of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, in an Israeli prison. A Palestinian was killed, and five others were wounded overnight on Tuesday in Israeli shelling in Gaza. This was carried out in retaliation for rocket attacks on Israel. A truce was announced on Wednesday by Islamic Jihad and Egypt. Israel did not react to the announcement.
According to an AFP tally derived from official Israeli and Palestinian sources, the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year now stands at 106, including combatants and civilians, including minors. Nineteen Israelis, including minors, one Ukrainian, and one Italian have been killed during the same period.
