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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Center for Human Rights on Thursday condemned the killing of three Palestinians in Yatta as an "extra-judicial execution," calling on the international community to take action.

"On Tuesday evening ... Israeli forces killed in two separate attacks of an extra-judicial execution and excessive use of lethal forces three Palestinian civilians in the vicinity of Yatta, south of Hebron," the group said.

"PCHR strongly condemns these two crimes that further prove Israeli forces' disregard for the civilians' lives. PCHR also calls upon the international community to immediately take an action to stop such crimes."

According to investigations conducted by the group, Moussa Mohammad Moussa Makhamra, Mahmoud Khalid al-Najjar, and Mohammad Fouad Jamil Nairoukh were driving a white Subaru on a dirt road east of Yatta on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The vehicle was being followed by a Renault Kangoo car.

An Israeli infantry unit which had deployed in the area directly opened fire on the Subaru and the Renault. Soon after, a Mercedes 608 accompanied by a Mercedes bus and an Isuzu Jeep, all with Palestinian license plates, stopped on the bypass road.

Israeli soldiers stepped out of the vehicles and deployed in the area, and an hour and a half later brought a mechanized robot to pull the dead bodies of the men from their vehicles, the rights group said.

An object was taken out of the vehicle by soldiers and detonated, and at 1 a.m. Israeli forces delivered the bodies of Mohammad Fouad Jamil Nairoukh and Moussa Mohammad Moussa Makhamra to the Abu al-Hassan al-Qasem Hospital in Yatta.

Nairoukh was killed by three bullets to his chest and one to the right side of his forehead, according to medical sources. Makhamra was killed by a bullet to the right eye and a bullet to the right side of the neck. He was also hit in the chest and pelvis.

At 1.30 a.m., Israeli forces delivered the body of Mahmoud Khaled al-Najjar, 24, to the hospital in Yatta. He was reportedly killed by Israeli soldiers near a house in Yatta.

"After examination of the crime scene, it was found that Israeli forces had opened fire randomly at al-Najjar while he was walking near the house, due to which, he was hit by a number of bullets causing his death before he was taken to the hospital," PCHR said.

The rights group said it was "deeply concerned" by the killings, which show that Israeli military forces use extra-judicial executions and excessive force against Palestinian civilians.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an that the Palestinians were in a car near Hebron and fired on security officers, who responded by shooting and killing the occupants.

Rosenfeld said explosive devices were found in the vehicle.

The Palestinians "were members of a Salafi Jihad terrorist cell that was planning an attack in the coming days," Rosenfeld said.

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Dr. Barghouthi Condemns Assassination Of Three Palestinians

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, condemned the assassination of three Palestinians by the Israeli army in Hebron, and called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank to end political talks with Tel Aviv.

Dr. Barghouthi said that the murder of the three Palestinians, carried out in cold blood, constitutes war crimes. He added that Israel must be brought to justice, at the International Criminal Court, for its crimes against the Palestinian people and against humanity.

The three were killed on Tuesday evening, east of Yatta town, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

“This crime is a racist crime, a crime against the Palestinian people”, he said. “The International Community must act and prosecute Israel and end its aggression instead of ignoring its crimes and its illegitimate settlement activities”.

“Negotiations with Tel Aviv just grant it more immunity for its crimes and violations”, Dr. Barghouthi stated. “Israel’s apartheid system must be stopped”.

He further stated that, with the most recent crime, the number of Palestinians killed since the resumption of peace talks a few months ago rises to 22, while hundreds have been injured and kidnapped.

The Red Crescent Society in Hebron said that the three have been identified as Mahmoud Khaled Najjar and Mohammad Mousa Fansha, both from Yatta, and Mohammad Fuad Nairoukh from Hebron.

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HEBRON, November 28, 2013 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Center for Human Rights Thursday described the Israeli army killing of three Palestinians in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, as extrajudicial.

It said in a report after investigating what happened that on Tuesday evening, Mousa Makhamreh, 24, from Yatta, and Muhammad Nairoukh, 24, from Hebron were driving on a dirt road in town.

Before reaching a bypass highway by about 100 meters, Israeli soldiers hiding in the fields surprised the Palestinian car with heavy shooting. Another car pursuing the Palestinians also opened fire at them.

More soldiers driving vehicles with Palestinian license plates arrived in the area at the same time and used a robot to blow up objects that were in the car.

After the bodies were taken to a Palestinian hospital in Yatta several hours later, it was found out that Makhamreh was hit by a bullet in the right eye that penetrated the head; another bullet hit him in the neck, a third in the chest and a fourth in pelvis.

Nairoukh was hit by three bullets in the chest and one bullet penetrated his head from the forehead.

Half an hour after the shooting at the car, said the center, another force surrounded a house in Yatta immediately opening fire at it without any warning, according to witnesses. The soldiers then blew up the front door to the house and entered it shooting at the person inside.

It said the person killed in the house was later identified as Mahmoud Najjar, 24, from Yatta. He was hit by four bullets to the chest and a bullet to the shoulder. His head was also crushed from the back when a robot pulled him from the house.

The human rights center condemned what it said was extrajudicial execution and excessive use of force in the killing of the three Palestinians.

M.S.

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RAMALLAH (AFP)Dec 2, 2013 -- Palestinian security forces arrested 20 Salafists, a senior source said Sunday after a Gaza-based group affiliated with Al-Qaeda confirmed it was operating in the West Bank for the first time.

But the Ramallah-based source denied that any of those arrested in a series of recent raids in the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank had ties to the global group set up by the late Osama Bin-Laden.

Salafists adhere to a strict version of Islam that they say was practiced in the time of the prophet Muhammad. Some Salafists advocate Al-Qaeda's brand of global jihad while others are not involved in militancy.

"In the last few days, around 20 people were arrested in Nablus, Jenin and Qalqilya," the source told AFP, speaking condition of anonymity and saying those arrested "embrace the Salafist ideology but are not affiliated with Al-Qaeda."

"There are no Al-Qaeda affiliated groups operating in the West Bank, but there are a few Salafist jihadist groups," he said.

His remarks came after the Mujahedeen Shura Council said three Palestinians who were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern West Bank on November 26 were members, describing them as "the tip of the iceberg."

"By the will of God Almighty, the global jihadist doctrine has reached the bank of pride, the West Bank, planting its foothold after all attempts to thwart its presence," the group said in a statement late Saturday.

It was the first time a group with ties to Al-Qaeda has claimed to be operational in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The group, which is known for carrying out rocket attacks on southern Israel from both Gaza and Egypt's Sinai peninsula, also called for a "jihad" against the Palestinian Authority which governs the West Bank, describing its leaders as "tyrants who conspired with infidels."

"They have lost as the jihadist doctrine has reached the (West) Bank," it said.

Last week, Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said the three militants who were killed in Yatta belonged to "a Salafist jihadist network" and were traveling in a car containing guns and explosives.

It said they were planning an attack "against Israeli targets and the Palestinian Authority."

But the Palestinian security official said none of the Salafists arrested in the recent sweep were armed, adding that they were all ex-members of the Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza.

"All of them are former members of Hamas and embrace the global Muslim Brotherhood ideology that produces ideologically extreme groups," he said.

"These men are connected locally through technology but are unarmed... They are not members of Al-Qaeda and they don't receive any instructions or weapons from it."

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt more than 80 years ago and has branches across the region, has long rejected Al-Qaeda's brand of anti-Western militancy, instead favoring grass-roots political advocacy.

Al-Qaeda has in turn been extremely critical of the Brotherhood's participation in elections, insisting that an Islamic state can only be brought about through violence.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council claimed two rocket attacks from Sinai against the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat in April and August, and it has often fired at southern Israel from Gaza in defiance of a truce, drawing down the wrath of Hamas.

Israel has also hunted down several of its members, killing the group's leader Sheikh Hisham al-Saedini and another Salafist militant in a strike on northern Gaza in October 2012, while another of its militants was killed in a strike on April 30.

The group, whose full name is the Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, also claimed to be behind an attack on an army post on the Israel-Egypt border in June 2012, in which a civilian contractor was killed.

An Islamist group with a similar name also operates in Iraq.