New episode of a wave of violence which does not seem to want to ebb. Three Palestinians were killed on Thursday (March 9) by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, with Israeli authorities accusing them of being part of the Islamic Jihad movement. The three men fell “a martyr”shot by Israeli forces in Jaba, a small town south of Jenin, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health, specifying that they were aged 22, 25 and 26 years.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hailed the action of the police forces, which “eliminated heinous terrorists who opened fire on our defenders”, according to a press release from his services. According to the Israeli police, special forces “infiltrated” accompanied soldiers intervening in Jaba to arrest people suspected of having committed attacks against the army in this area of the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
“Weapons and explosive devices”
Two of the three men killed belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, she said in a statement. “During the operation, shots from the car of the wanted men targeted the undercover Border Police officers”she said.
These latter have “responded by shooting and killed the three men in the car”. “A number of weapons and explosive devices were found in their vehicle”, she added. The Islamic Jihad denounced a “despicable murder”according to a press release.
As the start of Ramadan approaches, during which Passover is due to fall this year, in early April, many observers fear that an incident on the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in the Islam, built on the ruins of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70, degenerated into an outbreak of violence. Six Palestinians, including the author of a recent attack that claimed the lives of two Israelis, were killed on Tuesday in a new Israeli military raid in the West Bank.