Screengrab, via Twitter.
On March 16, four Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by undercover Israeli officers during a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and police said in a joint statement that members of the elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit “neutralized” two wanted Palestinian gunmen inside Jenin after receiving intelligence about their whereabouts.
The gunmen were identified as Yusuf Shreim, 29, a member of the Hamas Movement, and Nidal Khazem, 28, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The other two casualties were named as Omar Awadin, 16, and 37-year-old Luay al-Zughair.
The Shin Bet said that Khazem was involved in advancing “significant terrorist activity,” and Shreim was involved in the production of explosive devices and shooting at Israeli troops in the West Bank.
One of the videos that surfaced online shows undercover Yamam officers moving in Jenin, while another shows one of the officers shooting a wounded man who was lying on the ground in the head from a close range. A third video shows people chasing after the vehicle used by the officer.
According to the Palestinian Health Minister, at least 23 others were wounded in the raid, five of them seriously. The local wing of PIJ said that its members had clashed with the undercover Israeli forces that “carried out a cowardly assassination of resistance fighters.”
Israeli forces have killed 84 Palestinians during raids in the West Bank and other operations since the start of the year. During the same period, 14 Israelis were killed in a series of attacks by Palestinians.
The new raid in Jenin will likely lead to more escalation not only in the West Bank, but also in Jerusalem and around the Gaza Strip.
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