Description

Photos:
Yousef Fathi Soboh (aka Yousef Mohammad Fathi Odeh)15 or 16.
Osama Yasser Soboh, 22.
Mahmoud Mustafa Hmeidan, 27.
Zakariyya Ibrahim Badwan, 36.
Ahmad Zahran, 37.
Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News
Sept 27, 2021

Israeli soldiers abducted, Sunday, fourteen Palestinains from several parts of the occupied West Bank, during the massive invasion that also resulted in the death of six Palestinians, including a child; many Palestinians were injured.

In Jenin, in northern West Bank the soldiers assaulted and injured Mohammad Zar’ini, from Burqin town, before abducting him along with another Palestinian.

Undercover Israeli soldiers also kidnapped Ahmad Omar Salah and Mohammad Mazen Sa’adi, near a gas station in Jenin city.

The soldiers also shot one Palestinian with live fire, and abducted another, identified as Ahmad Adnan Aabed, after several army jeeps invaded Kafr Dan village, northwest of Jenin, leading to protests.

Furthermore, the soldiers invaded Qabatia town, south of Jenin, searched homes and abducted Ala Ahmad Abdul-Qader.

In Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes in Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem, and abducted Mohammad Moayyad Thawabta, 20, Qussai Jamal Deeriyya, 22, and Mohammad Ibrahim Deeriyya, 18.

In Hebron, in southern West Bank, the soldiers invaded Doura town, south of the city, searched many homes and abducted Amer Tawfiq Hlayyil and Hazem Nader Hlayyil.

In occupied Jerusalem, the soldiers abducted Ahmad Diwan, and his brother Saleh, from Beit Ijza town, in addition to injuring many other Palestinians in the town, and in the nearby village of Biddu.

The soldiers also abducted a young man during protests that took place near Bab al-‘Amoud, in Jerusalem.

On Sunday at dawn, the soldiers killed five Palestinians, including a child, injured and abducted many others, in Jenin and Jerusalem.

The five slain Palestinians have been officially identified as:

Yousef Fathi Soboh, 16, from Burqin town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Osama Yasser Soboh, 22, from Burqin town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Mahmoud Mustafa Hmeidan, 27, from Beit Anan town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

Zakariyya Ibrahim Badwan, 36, from Biddu town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

Ahmad Zahran, 37, from Biddu town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

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by IMEMC News
Sept 26, 2021
[First Published on: Sep 26, 2021 at 10:16]

Updated: Israeli soldiers killed, on Sunday at dawn, five Palestinians, including a child, injured and abducted many others, during massive invasions into various communities in the occupied West Bank, resulting in exchanges of fire with Palestinian fighters.

The five slain Palestinians have been oficially identified as:

Yousef Fathi Soboh, 16, from Burqin town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Osama Yasser Soboh, 22, from Burqin town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Mahmoud Mustafa Hmeidan, 27, from Beit Anan town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

Zakariyya Ibrahim Badwan, 36, from Biddu town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

Ahmad Zahran, 37, from Biddu town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

It is worth mentioning that Badwan is a former political prisoner who was held by Israeli for nine years, while Osama just celebrated his birthday a day earlier, and his wedding was just 20 days away.

Israeli media sources said undercover Israeli soldiers of the Duvdevan special forces carried out extensive operations to ‘arrest members of Hamas movement’ across the West Bank, leading to exchanges of fire, resulting in the death of at least five Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that the soldiers shot Osama Soboh, 22, with live fire causing serious injuries before he was rushed to Ibn Sina hospital in Burqin town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where he succumbed to his wounds.

Local sources said Soboh was killed when the soldiers invaded the home of a former political prisoner, identified as Mohammad Zar’ini, near the al-Yamoun town.

The soldiers also invaded Burqin town, southwest of Jenin, and surrounded a house, while more soldiers were deployed in the area before sporadic exchanges of fire took place for several hours.

In addition, Palestinian medical sources the soldiers shot a young man in the leg when the army invaded Kafr Dan village, northwest of Jenin; the soldiers also abducted at least one Palestinian before moving him to an unknown destination.

In Jenin city, undercover soldiers kidnapped Ahmad Abu Rmeila and Mohammad Mazen Sa’adi, after ambushing them in a gas station in Jenin city.

Exchanges of fire between the soldiers and Palestinian resistance fighters were also reported in several areas in the Jenin governorate. At least eight Palestinians, and two Israeli soldiers were injured.

In addition, the soldiers killed three Palestinians and injured several others during an exchange of fire in the Ein Ajeeb area, east of Beit Anan town, and in Biddu town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

One of the slain Palestinians has been identified as Ahmad Zahran, a member of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

It is worth mentioning that Ahmad is the brother of Zahran Zahran, who was killed by the Israeli army in the year 1998.

Local sources said the army used at least ten drones during its invasions into villages, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, especially in the Ein Ajeeb area.

Amina, the mother of Ahmad Zahran said the soldiers have been invading their home for the last ten days, detonating doors, destroying furniture, and ransacking the property, looking for her son.

She added that, almost three weeks ago, the soldiers invaded the property, looking for her son, and when they failed to locate him, they abducted ten of her children and grandchildren, including his wife, Asma’ ‘Aasi, who are all still held captive by Israel.

It is worth mentioning that Amina is also the mother of Zahran Zahran, who was killed by the Israeli army on September 29th, 1998.

Not far from the Zahran family home is the residence of Mahmoud Hmeidan, who was also killed less than two months after he was released from an Israeli prison after spending seven years in captivity.

Mahmoud’s uncle, Jihad Hmeidan, said his nephew was about to start studying for his Master’s Degree at the Al-Quds Open University after he obtained his Bachelors’s Degree while imprisoned in the Negev Israeli detention camp.

Furthermore, Zakariyya Badwan who was also killed by the Israeli army in Biddu was first shot and injured by the soldiers who abducted him despite his wounds, before succumbing to his injuries.

Badwan is a married father of a child, only 18 months of age, and an infant who was born four months earlier.

The Israeli army has been trying to abduct Ahmad Zahran, 35, Ibrahim Badwan, 27, and Mahmoud Hmeidan, 27, during extensive invasions over the last three weeks.

Ahmad and Zakariyya were assassinated by undercover Israeli soldiers in the Ein Ajeeb area, near Beit Anan, northwest of Jerusalem, when they surrounded them while sleeping in a concrete room with a tin ceiling, and opened fire at them.

Eyewitnesses said they saw an Israeli helicopter flying over the area, and added that the undercover soldiers surrounded the room and fired a small shell at it. They added that they only heard the sound of three live rounds, and the explosion resulting from the shell.

The Palestinians could not tell what exactly happened until the morning when they saw the soldiers carrying two corpses and a seriously wounded Palestinian, who later died from his wounds.

In related news, the army invaded Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem, and abducted Mohammad Moayyad Thawabta, 20, Qussai Jamal Deeriyya, 22, and Mohammad Ibrahim Deeriyya, 18, from their homes.

Latesr Sunday, the family of Sa’ad Zidan Sa’ayda, 35, said that the soldiers shot him while he was in a car in Burqin town, and dragged him away.

The family does not know what happened to their son, or where the soldiers took him, and said that he, along his brother Odah, and the car’s driver, Jamil Mohammad Sa’ayda, where heading to their work when the soldiers opened fire at their car.

In Hebron, in southern West Bank, the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes, and abducted two Palestinians, identified as Amer Tawfiq Abu Hlayyil and Hazem Nader Abu Hlayyil, in Doura town, south of the city.

The soldiers also invaded the as-Sammoa’ town, south of Hebron, and installed roadblocks on the main roads of the nearby Thaheriyya town in addition to the Zeev area.

The Israeli army said its soldiers, especially the Duvdevan special forces, in cooperation with the police and border police units, and the Shin Bet security agency, carried out the massive operations in the West Bank to target what it called Hamas members.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Resistance Committees, Hamas movement and various Palestinian factions denounced the Israeli escalation and vowed retaliation to avenge the death of the slain Palestinians.

The Israeli army said two soldiers where injured during the armed confrontations with the Palestinians, and added that the two are in serious condition and undergone several injuries.

Initial investigations revealed that “while it remains unknow who fired that shots that injured the two soldiers, the two could have been injured by friendly fire.”

First Published on: Sep 26, 2021 at 10:16
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The IDF Operation Thwarted Hamas’ Plan for Attacks in Israel – in the Nick of Time

The Hamas network whose members were arrested on Sunday is unusual because it encompasses two regions of the West Bank that are relatively far apart, suggesting it has established a stronger foothold

by Amos Harel for Haareetz
Sep 27, 2021

The conflict with the Palestinians has its own ways of reminding people of its existence, even when Israeli governments do their best to push it to the bottom of the national agenda.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, while Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was en route to New York for his first speech to the UN General Assembly, the security services embarked on a large-scale arrest operation across the West Bank. The target was Hamas’ military infrastructure in the Ramallah and Jenin areas.

But some of the Israeli forces encountered armed resistance by the wanted men. The night ended with five Palestinians dead and two Israelis – an officer and soldier in the undercover Duvdevan unit – in serious condition after being shot.

Bennett told reporters aboard his plane that the security forces had targeted “Hamas terrorists who were about to carry out terror attacks in the immediate future.” The plan apparently included a series of attacks, some of them inside Israel.

There have recently been several shooting attacks on army checkpoints in the Jenin region, and Israeli arrest operations, especially near the Jenin refugee camp, have been met with an unusual volume of Palestinian gunfire. The Palestinian Authority’s security services avoid the city, and especially the refugee camp, almost totally for fear of clashes.

The escape of six Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa Prison earlier this month also contributed to the stormy mood in the northern West Bank. All six are from the Jenin area. They were recaptured after a manhunt that lasted about two weeks – two near Jenin and the rest inside Israel, in Nazareth and the Jezreel Valley.

The Hamas network whose members were arrested on Sunday is unusual because it encompasses two regions of the West Bank that are relatively far apart. Since the second intifada ended some 15 years ago, Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank has had trouble operating a general command that would control all the regional networks.

And ongoing counterterrorism efforts known as “mowing the grass” – carried out by the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces, sometimes with help from the PA security services – have uncovered and thwarted most of these networks before they manage to do significant damage.

The latest arrests seem like a miniature version of what happened in the summer of 2014, just before the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank and the subsequent war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In that incident, a network of dozens of Hamas activists throughout the West Bank was discovered.

The network arrested in 2014 was planning attacks against Israelis and also sought to topple the PA’s government. The people behind it were senior Hamas operatives in Gaza and abroad, including some who were deported after being released from jail in 2011 to secure the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

This time, too, it’s worth noting the possible involvement of Hamas operatives overseas. The key person is Saleh al-Arouri, who is officially the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau but in practice is involved in directing and financing terrorist activity. Two other senior figures are Moussa Dudin and Zahar Jabareen, who are also officially members of the political bureau.

All three are originally from the West Bank. Arouri went abroad in 2010 as part of a deal with the Shin Bet. The other two, who had been jailed for terrorist activity, were deported a year later as part of the Shalit deal. All three are veteran Hamas operatives in their forties who are still connected to what’s happening in the West Bank.

Other operatives are from Gaza, and also include some deported as part of the Shalit deal.

Dudin was recruited into Hamas by Arouri. Jabareen was recruited by the late Yihye Ayash, nicknamed “the engineer,” back in 1993. Until 2017, all three men lived in Qatar. Today, they rotate between Lebanon and Turkey.

Because Hamas in the West Bank is short of money, funding for its political activity also comes from Hamas military headquarters overseas. This means that all three men are involved in Hamas’ political activity as well.

Altogether, Israel has arrested more than 20 Palestinians over the last week, an operation that peaked early Sunday morning. The number of armed operatives, their geographic spread and the fact that some were found in “safe houses” outside their villages may all be indicative of preparations for terrorist attacks, possibly inside Israel. It’s still not clear whether all the terrorists involved were arrested and whether their plans have been definitively thwarted.

In two incidents – one involving the Duvdevan soldiers in Burkin, near Jenin, and one involving the Border Police counterterrorism unit Yamam in Biddu, west of Ramallah – the Palestinians opened fire first. The wanted man in Burkin had hidden under the house. After he opened fire, the soldiers stormed his position.

The IDF Central Command is looking into the reasonable possibility that the two soldiers were hit by friendly fire during this assault. But based on the initial inquiry, this wasn’t a case of mistaken identity, in which one force fires at another because the first mistakenly thinks the second are terrorists.

The Palestinian fatalities include a relatively well-known local operative, Ahmad Zahran of Biddu. Israeli intelligence agencies have been familiar with his name for several years. His picture, mounted on a horse, was disseminated Sunday morning on Palestinian social media networks, which crowned him as a hero of the struggle against Israel.

Another fatality has been identified as a member of Islamic Jihad. It’s still not clear whether he was involved in the Hamas terrorist network or merely joined the shootout once it started. During some of the arrests, armed men did show up to help the wanted men by joining the gunfight.

As far as is known, all the men killed are known operatives in the military wings of terrorist organizations and were killed during a gunfight. But the unusually high number of Palestinian fatalities may spark unrest in the territories, as well as attempts to carry out revenge attacks.

No less important is the possibility of a reaction from Gaza. In the past, Islamic Jihad has fired rockets at Israel from Gaza in response to killings of its members in the West Bank.

Hamas faces a more difficult dilemma. Because it rules Gaza, its leaders know that rocket fire from Hamas would likely prompt a harsher Israeli response and could thereby endanger Egypt’s efforts to broker a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel.

The timing is also very inconvenient for Israel’s government. Sunday’s incident occurred during the Sukkot holiday and on the eve of Bennett’s UN address.
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Israeli forces kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy with gun

by Defense for Children-Palestine (DCI-Palestine)

Ramallah, September 27, 2021—Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy after he allegedly picked up a gun and fired at an Israeli military vehicle during an early morning military raid on Sunday in the northern occupied West Bank.

Yousef Mohammad Fathi Odeh, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces after he allegedly picked up a gun discarded by a Palestinian gunman during an early morning raid on Burqin, a village three miles west of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank on September 26, according to information gathered by Defense for Children International - Palestine. An Israeli sniper shot Yousef multiple times after he reportedly picked up a firearm and fired at an Israeli military vehicle, according to DCIP’s investigation.

“Palestinian children live in a hyper-militarized context where the Israeli military's nighttime incursions into Palestinian communities to arrest and intimidate Palestinian civilians is the norm,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program Director at DCIP. “Israeli authorities must end policies of collective punishment, including confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies in violation of international humanitarian law.”

Israeli forces raided Burqin around 3 a.m. on September 26 to conduct a search and arrest operation. Armed clashes ensued between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen, according to information gathered by DCIP.

Around 7 a.m., the confrontation moved to the western entrance of the town. Yousef arrived on his motorbike at the site at same time a Palestinian gunman opened fire at Israeli soldiers, an eyewitness told DCIP. Israeli soldiers returned fire at the gunman, striking him in the leg. The gunman threw his weapon to the ground and fled, according to information gathered by DCIP.

Yousef allegedly crawled on the ground and picked up the weapon. At that moment, an Israeli sniper shot Yousef in the leg. Yousef dropped the gun, picked it up and fired two shots at an Israeli military vehicle located about 120 meters (400 feet) away, according to DCIP’s documentation. The Israeli sniper fired twice more at Yousef, striking him in the lower part of his body and in his head, likely killing him on the spot, according to information gathered by DCIP.

After he was shot, an Israeli military vehicle approached Yousef and ran over his body. A number of soldiers got out of the vehicle, put Yousef on a stretcher, loaded him into the vehicle, and left the site.

The Israeli army later notified Palestinian authorities who notified Yousef’s family that he was dead. Yousef’s body has not been returned to his family, according to information gathered by DCIP.

Yousef is the 13th Palestinian child shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the beginning of 2021. Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces on August 24 as Israeli forces conducted a raid in the Balata refugee camp located southeast of Nablus. Israeli forces shot Mohammad Mo’ayyad Bahjat Abu Sara on July 28, while he was a passenger in his father’s car. Israeli forces fired 13 bullets at the vehicle as it retreated from the area in which they were deployed.

Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.

Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as well as stipulate that parties of an armed conflict must bury the deceased in an honorable way. For families, the practice amounts to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law.

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