Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday 25 July. The occupation forces opened fire on the men while they were in a car. These are just the latest deaths in a surge of Israeli violence against the people of Palestine since early 2022.
The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported that:
The Israeli forces also seized the three martyrs’ bodies and transported them in an Israeli ambulance to an unknown location, after preventing the Palestinian ambulance crews from reaching the targeted vehicle.
PIC continued:
eyewitnesses confirmed that the occupation forces fired a barrage of bullets at the young men, in an apparent cold-blooded assassination operation.
The men were named as Nour al-Din al-Ardah, Montaser Salama, and Saad Al-Kharraz. Quds News Network tweeted that citizens of Nablus will take part in a general strike to mark the murders:
Palestinians are observing a general strike in Nablus city to mourn the killing of the three Palestinians, Nour al-Din al-Ardah, Montaser Salama, and Saad Al-Kharraz, by Israeli forces this morning. pic.twitter.com/DHkwMrQ2TQ
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 25, 2023
Shooting medics
Meanwhile, on 24 July the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that occupation forces targeted medics in Nablus:
🚨Today, Israeli forces shot a @PalestineRCS medic in both feet with live ammunition, while he was carrying out his humanitarian work during an incursion in Askar refugee camp, near #Nablus.
The medic is currently in hospital.#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/4dZngvH95I
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 24, 2023
The Red Crescent called for the international community to step up to ensure medics’ safety on the ground:
@PalestineRCS warns of the Israeli serious attacks committed against its medical teams today in Askar camp in #Nablus and Nur Shams camp in #Tulkarm.
PRCS calls on the international community to ensure their #protection & #respect for their rights. https://t.co/8S9EVC0fWa pic.twitter.com/n2EqqMTYbL
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 24, 2023
Biggest attack since Second Intifada
These latest murders follow on from other relentless attacks by the Israeli state. It has only been weeks since the occupation forces launched their devastating assault on the West Bank city of Jenin. The operation, grotesquely labelled Operation Home and Garden by Israel, marked the biggest attack on Palestine since the second Palestinian uprising (or ‘Intifada’) in the 2000s.
The Canary previously reported:
As well as military bulldozers, the Israeli military has used armed drones in its attack on Jenin…
The use of heavy weaponry in general in the West Bank has been steadily increasing. Israeli pilots used Apache helicopters to fire missiles during the last full-scale raid on Jenin in June. It was the first time missiles had been fired from Apaches in the West Bank in 20 years.
During the assault on the city, Israel attacked journalists on the ground. They shot Hazem Nasser in the abdomen while he was reporting on the situation. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that Israeli forces directly attacked ambulances.
The Palestinian spirit remains strong
Israeli forces and occupiers have killed at least 201 Palestinian people this year alone, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. But it will take more than these latest assaults to break the Palestinian spirit. Israel continues to try to sway the narrative, calling the people it murders “terrorists” or “gunmen” in a bid to convince the world that it is on the right side of history.
However, the people of Palestine remain steadfast, resisting the occupation and refusing to be thrown off their lands again. Meanwhile, international solidarity with Palestine won’t be suppressed, despite some states’ – such as the UK and Germany – attempts to silence activists, either by locking them up or by labelling them as antisemitic.
And as the Canary has consistently covered, western mainstream media outlets are only too happy to report whatever Israel says, helping the apartheid state distort the truth and whitewash the occupation.
Portugal, on the other hand, officially announced on 21 July that it recognises the Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic. The Nakba refers to the Zionist invasion and ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, which led to the creation of the Israeli state.
Other European states need to follow suit, not just recognising the Nakba of 1948 but also recognising that the Nakba is ongoing. Until then, it will be down to the people of Palestine, along with their international grassroots activist supporters around the world, to bring down Israeli apartheid.
Featured image via Wafa News Agency / Screenshot
