Israel kills six Palestinians in 48 hours

Mourners carry the body of Osama Subuh during his funeral in the occupied West Bank village of Burqin on 26 September.

 Oday DaibesAPA images

Tamara Nassar -28 September 2021

Israeli occupation forces ran over a Palestinian child with a military vehicle after shooting him, a human rights group stated on Monday.

Yousef Muhammad Odeh, 15, was among six Palestinians killed in multiple areas in the West Bank in recent days.

All but one were killed by Israeli forces during a major arrest operation in different areas of the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

The military targeted Hamas “military infrastructure” in the Ramallah and Jenin areas “after intelligence showed the group was planning to carry out attacks in Israel,” according to the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz.

The operation involved two death squads: Duvdevan, an elite Israeli military unit whose members often disguise themselves as Palestinians in order to carry out extrajudicial executions, and Yamam, a unit of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police whose members shot and killed two Palestinian police officers in Jenin earlier this year.

Gunfire exchange

Israeli forces launched their arrest operation late Saturday in the city of Jenin and nearby Kafr Dan in the northern occupied West Bank where two Palestinians were arrested without any exchange of fire, according to The Times of Israel.

Soldiers then surrounded a house in Burqin village, where a wounded Palestinian was arrested following a firefight.

Shortly after, Burqin was the scene of another gunfight during which Osama Subuh, a 22-year-old member of the Islamic Jihad resistance group, was killed by Israeli fire.

An Israeli soldier and an officer were injured by friendly fire during the raid, according to Haaretz.

Israeli forces also killed 15-year-old Yousef Muhammad Odeh in Burqin.

Odeh arrived at the scene at the same time during the early morning hours that a Palestinian shot at invading Israeli soldiers near the entrance of the town on Sunday morning, eyewitnesses told Defense for Children International Palestine.

The Palestinian gunman, who was injured in the leg by Israeli soldiers, dropped his weapon and fled.

Odeh had allegedly picked up the firearm when an Israeli sniper shot him in the leg. He dropped the gun, picked it up again and fired two shots at an Israeli military vehicle located 400 feet away.

An Israeli sniper fired at Odeh again, striking him in the leg and head.

“After he was shot, an Israeli military vehicle approached Yousef and ran over his body,” DCIP said.

Soldiers then evacuated Odeh’s body, which has not been transferred to his family for burial, according to the rights group.

Three killed in raid

Three Palestinians were killed by the Yamam unit of Israel’s Border Police in another gunfight in the village of Beit Anan in the Jerusalem governorate in the occupied West Bank.

They were identified as Ahmad Zahran, Zakaria Badwan and Mahmoud Humeidan. They were from the nearby village of Biddu.

Their bodies are being held by Israel, the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported. No Israeli soldiers were injured, the military told media.

Badwan worked at the Palestinian Museum, which closed its building in Birzeit, near Ramallah, on Sunday in mourning.

“We remember Zakaria for his cheerful face and kind manners,” the museum stated.

A Hamas media spokesperson pointed to high-level meetings between Palestinian Authority officials and Israeli ministers in Ramallah in the days leading up to deadly raids.

He cited the continued collaboration between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli lawmakers under the banner of “security coordination.”

The spokesperson said the meetings “encouraged the occupation once again to pursue the resistance, kill its rebellious youth and commit more crimes against our people.”

Killed in Beita

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces shot Muhammad Ali Khabisa, 28, in the head with live ammunition on Friday in Beita, a village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Khabisa, father to an infant, died of his wounds hours later.

Khabisa was wounded by Israeli army fire during a demonstration in Beita two weeks earlier.

Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians in the village this year, including two children who were friends.

Beita residents are protesting the building of a colonial settlement on a hill belonging to Palestinian villages.

The new outpost, named Evyatar, was established on Jabal Subeih in May.

Israel has previously evacuated Evyatar but is permitting structures there to remain following an agreement made with settlers.