ShareTULKAREM: Seven Palestinians were killed Tuesday during attacks by Zionist forces on towns in the occupied West Bank. Zionist vehicles and bulldozers stormed the city and camp of Tulkarem overnight on Monday and into Tuesday for a large-scale ten-hour raid, which saw fighting break out between local armed groups and the Zionist army.
Five people were killed by a Zionist drone strike on Tuesday, including a 50-year-old woman and her daughter, as well as three senior commanders from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Al-Qassam Brigades. Two Palestinian men were killed by Zionist gunfire in the town of Sa’ir near Hebron during a separate raid.
Ashraf Nafi, the commander of Hamas’ military wing the Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Awad, the commander of Fatah’s military wing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and militant Muhammed Badie were killed by the drone strike in Tulkarem, Palestinian media reported. The Zionist army said it carried out the strike as part of an “anti-terrorist” operation.
“Ashraf was responsible for manufacturing and embedding explosives intended to attack IDF soldiers,” it said. Hamas confirmed the “cowardly assassination” of commander Ashraf Nafi and his companions. The Zionist military confiscated the bodies of the three commanders, according to local reports. A Zionist bulldozer was filmed carrying bodies through the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. A correspondent from Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the bulldozer “abused the martyrs and carried them to a place outside the camp”.
Qassam said it engaged in ‘fierce clashes’ during the hours long raid. Zionist forces used bulldozers to destroy roads and buildings in the camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had treated a 30-year-old man for bullet wounds to the abdomen, thigh and hand, and three women for shrapnel wounds, one of them to the eye. It said Zionist forces were obstructing access for their ambulances to reach the wounded.
Destroyed infrastructure
More than 25 military vehicles, including bulldozers, stormed the camp, scooping up rubble to block its alleys, according to Wafa. A woman in the camp told AFP that “streets, shops and houses” were all destroyed in the raid. “They (the Zionist army) aim at destroying the infrastructure in the camps so they can eventually push people to leave,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. More than 150,000 Palestinian refugees live in the Tulkarem refugee camp, which is the second largest in the West Bank and was established in the wake of the 1948 Nakba.
In a separate incident near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Zionist troops killed two people in the town of Sa’ir, the Palestinian health ministry said. Responding to AFP queries, the Zionist military said its forces carried out an “anti-terrorist operation in the Sa’ir area”.
“During the operation, a violent riot broke out in which terrorists hurled stones and blocks toward the soldiers, who responded with fire to remove the threat. Hits were identified,” it said.
Between 7 October, when the Gaza war began, and 15 July, 554 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by Zionist military or settler attacks, according to figures from the UN’s OCHA agency.
A total of 143 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October last year, according to UN children’s agency UNICEF. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Zionist policies in the West Bank, whether through the destruction of property or after being pushed out by violent settler assaults. — Agencies
