Israeli forces kill one Palestinian, wound 15 in Jenin refugee camp raid

Israeli forces waged a large-scale raid in the flashpoint West Bank district of Jenin on Saturday killing one Palestinian and wounding at least 15 others, the Palestinian health ministry has said.

The raiding forces opened gunfire on local Palestinians in the northern city of Jenin and its refugee camp, killing 25-year-old Ahmad al-Saadi with one shot in the head and another in the chest, reports said.

At least 15 were injured, including two shot in the abdomen by live bullets who were in a critical condition.

The raid, which lasted several hours, came two days after three Israelis were killed in a shooting in Tel Aviv. The shooter was identified as 29-year-old Raad Hazem, from the Jenin refugee camp. He was killed by Israeli police following a nine-hour manhunt in the coastal city of Yafa.

Shortly after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave Israeli forces "full freedom" to respond.

Israeli occupation forces storm residential buildings during their military raid into Jenin refugee camp. pic.twitter.com/y7BN8AKIaD

— Rawand Shurrab𓂆🇵🇸 (@ShurrabRawand) April 9, 2022

"Israeli forces arrived unusually in plain daylight, around nine in the morning, and pushed hundreds of soldiers into the camp," Qaher Abed, secretary of the Palestinian Fatah movement in the western Jenin region, told The New Arab.

Abed said the Israeli forces surrounded the Hazem family house in Jenin refugee camp, adding that "they took measurements of Hazem's house for later demolition".

"Demolishing a house in the refugee camp won’t be easy, and we expect that it will involve a much larger and more violent raid," he said.

Other witnesses cited by Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Israeli forces called on Hazem's family to come out of the house and turn themselves in. It was not clear what they were accused of.

In the hours following the large-scale raid, Israeli forces closed the Jalamah checkpoint, north of the West Bank, stopping Palestinian workers who use it to go to work in Israel from being able to do so.

Simultaneously, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian cars near Ramallah and Nablus, while tens of settlers attacked a Palestinian house in the village of Sinjel, east of Ramallah.

"We heard that settlers were gathering on the Israeli road, calling for revenge," Shadi Hatem, a resident of Sinjel in his thirties, told The New Arab.

"Shortly after, residents were running towards a house at the entrance of the village that was being attacked with rocks by settlers," he said.

"We managed to push them off, but then the Israeli army arrived and clashes started, and at least five people were treated after inhaling tear gas," Hatem added.

With Saturday’s raid, Israel has so far killed three Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in less than ten days.

Last week, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the refugee camp and wounded 14 in a military raid.

Tensions continue to rise following a series of stabbing and shooting attacks in Israel in recent weeks.

Last week, another Palestinian from the Jenin refugee camp was killed by Israeli police after shooting and killing five Israelis in the Bnei Brak suburb in Tel Aviv.

Rights groups have repeatedly slammed Israeli forces for showing "appalling disregard for human life" by using "reckless and unlawful lethal force" against Palestinians.

Amnesty International has repeatedly urged an end to the "worrying rise in unlawful killings by Israeli forces, fostered by a culture of impunity".

Tensions are expected to rise further with Israeli settlers' calls to storm al-Aqsa compound in the coming weeks and perform the Jewish Passover lamb slaughter ritual in the Muslim sanctuary, coinciding with the beginning of the second half of the Muslim month of Ramadan.

The West Bank, which has been occupied by Israeli forces since the 1967 Six-Day war, is home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers, living in communities deemed illegal under international law.