Israel kills six Palestinians in 24 hours, including teenager

Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians in less than 24 hour in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis, 25-year-old Yousef Radwan was shot in the head from across the Israeli fence while taking part in ongoing protests against Israeli stormings of Al-Aqsa mosque.

Early on Wednesday, Israeli forces killed 19-year-old Dargham Al-Akhras, during a military raid into the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho. Al-Akhras who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, was the second Palestinian killed in Aqbat Jabr since last week.

His father told Palestinian media on Wednesday that Al-Akhras was standing on his house rooftop early in the morning, when soldiers began to shoot randomly while entering the refugee camp. He was a high school student and worked in a tourist resort in Jericho.

BREAKING: The death toll from an Israeli military raid on the West Bank city of #Jenin has risen to 4. pic.twitter.com/k6wh0hSPfW

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 19, 2023

In Jenin, Israeli forces raided the refugee camp on Tuesday night, and were soon confronted by Palestinian fighters. The attacking Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during the raid, and a fourth died of his wounds early on Wednesday. During the raid, 30 Palestinians were reported injured or wounded by Israeli fire.

The victims were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Mahmoud Al-Saadi, 23 years old, Mahmoud Ararawi, 24 years old, Raafat Khamayseh, 22 years old, and Atta Mousa, 29 years old, from the village of Markah, south of Jenin.

Mostafa Chita, the director of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, described the beginning of the raid to The New Arab.

“We were in the middle of a play performance by our students, in the presence of many international friends from European countries and the US, when electricity suddenly shut down,” Chita said.

“Soon after that, we began to hear gunfire and explosions outside the theatre, and we realised that there was a raid by occupation forces.”

Palestinian 19yr-old Drgham Al-Akhras from Jericho, shot dead by an israeli sniper at dawn, is the 6th person to be killed by israelis in 24hrs pic.twitter.com/futrvxTKsm

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) September 20, 2023

Several nearby houses were raided or targeted by gunfire, including one next to the theatre, sparking clashes with Palestinian fighters.

“When the fighting ended and the occupation forces withdrew, we came out to the street, and saw many residents gathered at a point in the street where Israeli forces had broken a water pipe, causing a water cut in a large part of the camp,” the theatre director said.

Most of the wounded in the raid were transferred to the Jenin Public Hospital and the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin city.

“We counted 30 wounded at our hospital, all of them aged between 15 and 39, hit by live bullets or shrapnel in all parts of the body”, Dr. Wesam Abu Bakr, director of the Jenin Public Hospital, told TNA.

“The hospital was overwhelmed, especially because the raid happened at night, when the staffing was at its minimum in the emergency and the surgery departments,” Abu Bakr said.

A little Palestinian boy searches the rubble of his home, demolished by the israelis in Jericho yesterday, for his belongings | via @Kuffiyateam pic.twitter.com/8Tpriwi8u6

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) September 19, 2023

The hospital was also hit with gunfire with the air-conditioning unit at the emergency department damaged by bullets.

The Jenin Brigade, the local Palestinian armed group, mourned three of the killed, Atta Mousa, Mahmoud Ararawi, and Mahmoud Saadi, saying they were members. 

“Mahmoud Saadi was the only son to his father and mother, and he had other siblings from a different mother,” his friend, who requested anonymity told TNA. 

He described the 23-year-old as "smart and nice, friendly to everybody and always laughing and joking”. 

“He dreamed of marrying and forming a family, but he was so impacted by the occupation’s raids and bloodshed in the camp, that he decided to join the Jenin Brigade, and he was wanted by both Israeli and Palestinian Authority forces,” the friend said.

Within 24 hours, Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians, including four from Jenin, one from Gaza and the latter from Jericho.

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— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 20, 2023

Israel’s Tuesday raid into Jenin came as tensions are rising in the refugee camp and city between Palestinian armed groups and the Palestinian Authority in the Jenin camp.

On Monday night, the Jenin Brigade’s fighters held a press conference to denounce the PA security forces’ arrests of their members.

Israeli forces have been regularly raiding Jenin since late 2021, along with other Palestinian cities and refugee camps.

Since the beginning of 2023, Israeli raids in the West Bank have killed 228 Palestinians, including 43 children, according to human rights groups and the Palestinian health ministry.