Ramallah [Palestine], March 17: Zionist forces on Thursday killed four Palestinians including a teenager in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deadly raid on Jenin. The Palestinian health ministry said 23 others had been wounded in the raid in the northern West Bank city, five of them seriously. It identified those killed as Omar Awadin, 16, Luay Al-Zughair, 37, NidalKhazim, 28 and Youssef Shreem, 29.
The army statement said Khazim and Shreem were both residents of the Jenin refugee camp and members of Islamic Jihad. The militant group said the Zionist entity "will pay the price for these crimes" without identifying the two as its members. Mahmoud Al-Saadi of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin told AFP that "a (Zionist) undercover unit stormed the city center's Abu Bakr street".
The raid comes days before a planned meeting between Palestinian and Zionist officials on Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for talks aimed at reducing tensions ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan. Islamist movement Hamas, which rules in the Zionist-blockaded Gaza Strip, called the latest raid a "crime", warning it will not go "unanswered".
Zionist forces have launched numerous raids on the city of Jenin and its eponymous refugee camp in recent months. These raids have killed more than 20 Palestinians since the start of the year, including seven earlier this month and 10 in January. The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 85 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
On Tuesday, a senior Hamas official warned the Zionist entity his group would react to any possible "violations" at Jerusalem's holy sites during Ramadan, which begins later in March. Salah Al-Aruri, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, said the risk of escalation entirely "depends on the (Zionist) occupation's violations across Palestine and at Al-Aqsa mosque" located in annexed east Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa, a Jordan-administered mosque compound, is the third holiest site in Islam
Source: Kuwait Times
