Tensions dramatically escalated as Israeli occupation forces continued its aggression against Palestinians in a gruesome way sparking assumptions of a new Intifada.
In its latest onslaught, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager last night over an alleged shooting attempt in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, amid overnight attacks by Israeli settlers in many areas and junctions across the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military, in a statement released before midnight on Saturday, alleged that a Palestinian man armed with a handgun was killed near the illegal Kedumim settlement, illegally built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank province of Qalqilia, according to Palestinian security sources.
Karam Ali Salman, 18, a resident of Qusin village near the city of Nablus, was reportedly shot dead by an armed Israeli settler in yet unclear circumstances, WAFA news agency reported.
Salman’s killing is part of an ongoing wave of unabated settler violence encouraged by the new far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu and with incitement from his ultranationalist cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Israelis Digging their Own Grave
In the same context, Israeli occupation forces arrested seven Palestinians today in occupied Jerusalem, according to local sources.
Israeli police carried out a large-scale arrest campaign across the occupied city, raiding homes and terrorizing Palestinian citizens and arresting seven of them.
Palestinians woke up this morning to yet another terrorist attack by Israeli settler gangs in which six vehicles were set on fire by Israeli settlers in the village of Aqraba, north of the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/dUK0wi64T1
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 29, 2023
A total of 144 attacks were carried out last night by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus today.
Fanatic settler groups hurled stones and partially damaged at least 120 vehicles on roads, while they set on fire six vehicles completely damaging them. At least 22 Palestinian-owned shops were attacked by settlers in the town of Huwwara.
The Zionist forces also sealed off a Palestinian-owned house this morning in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tour in preparation for its “punitive demolition”.
The Israeli measure came a few hours after the far-right Israeli government decided to seal off the house of late Khairi Alqam, the executor of the heroic shooting operation on Friday night in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in which 7 Israeli settlers were gunned down.
Israeli occupation authorities occupied Alqam’s family house yesterday and arrested members of his family, including his father and other relatives, and embarked on mapping the house and making other preparations for its demolition.
On Sunday, a 24-year-old Palestinian youth died today from injuries sustained last Thursday in an Israeli military attack on Jenin refugee camp, north of the West Bank, according to the Ministry of Health.
MoH said Omar Tareq Saadi, a resident of Jenin, was critically injured by Israeli bullets during the Israeli raid on Thursday, and was announced dead of his wounds this evening.
Netanyahu’s Government Playing with Fire
After convening his security cabinet for a late-night meeting on Saturday, Netanyahu said the government would pursue sanctions against families of assailants and that he would present steps this week to “strengthen settlements”.
A move seen by observers as an escalation that would lead to more retaliation operations by Palestinians on Israelis.
Israeli apartheid forces have shot and killed 20 West Bank Palestinians, including 5 children, a father and a teacher, in the first weeks of 2023. pic.twitter.com/kwBrCQ6Lp5
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 25, 2023
Palestinian factions, most notably Hamas and Islamic Jihad, vowed to respond to the escalation. They united on the fact that the attack marked the beginning of the Palestinian response to the “crimes of the government of the fascist settlers.”
“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the dangerous escalation that the situation has reached due to its crimes of killing, its continuation of settlement, the annexation of land, and the demolition of homes,” said a statement released by the Palestinian leadership after President Mahmoud Abbas held a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Netanyahu, whose government was sworn in a month ago, is facing tens of thousands of Israelis who have protested across the country against the right-wing government for the fourth consecutive week. There have been regular protests against the government for several weeks, with more than 100,000 people turning up in Tel Aviv on January 21.
The latest rally was held on Saturday, with demonstrators carrying Israeli flags on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv chanting “No to dictatorship” and “Democracy”.
Exacerbating events like the raid in Jenin have brought the situation to a precipice. Analysts have said that the objective of Palestinian resistance, as per the latest Israeli aggression, is not to calm things down, but to end the occupation.
Looking back at history, similar events were part of the first and second Intifadas. Thus any number of incidents could set off a third uprising, that is if it hasn’t already erupted.
Source: Agencies (edited and translated by Al-Manar English Website)
