Israeli forces kill six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank within 48 hours

• Israeli forces raided Tulkarm late on Monday, less than a week after a 2-day-long incursion into the city, killing 3 young men.
• On Sunday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a 5-year-old, at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem.
• Israeli forces continue to withhold the body of the killed Palestinian child.
• Nine days into 2024, the Palestinian death toll by Israeli forces in the West Bank reached 21.
   

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including a five-year-old child, in the past 48 hours.

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl, at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem, and on Monday night, Israeli forces killed another three Palestinians during a military raid in Tulkarm.

Late on Monday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian young men outside the Tulkarm refugee camp shortly before raiding the camp. Residents described the killing as "brutal".

The Palestinian health ministry identified the three men as Tareq Shaheen, 23, Ahed Mousa, 21, and Yousef Kahwli, 20.

MUST READ: "Israeli Forces Kill Three Palestinian Youths, Run over Body in Tulkarm"

Article from @PalestineChron https://t.co/PU5WvEGmMc pic.twitter.com/Mq3BUdHx55

— Palestine Deep Dive (@PDeepdive) January 9, 2024

"The occupation forces rounded some young men outside the camp and began to arrest some of them, so they began to run", Faisal Salameh, a resident of Tulkarm and political activist in the city, told The New Arab.

"As they ran, the occupation forces opened fire at them from another angle and immediately killed them, all shot in the head", said Salameh. "Then, an occupation military jeep brutally rolled over the body of one of the young men".

"None of the three young men had any previous trouble with the occupation; none of them was wanted by them", he added.

Video footage attributed to Israel's Monday raid in Tulkarm circulated on social media. It shows a group of young men being fired at around a corner and, three falling on the ground, then a military vehicle rolling over one of them.

Another video footage tweeted by the Israeli army shows the incident from a different angle but doesn't include the rolling over of the body by the military vehicle. In both footage, one of the men appears to be holding a weapon, which he drops when shot. All the others are unarmed.

Israeli forces opened fire at three young men in the West Bank city of Tulkarm and prevented paramedics from reaching them for two hours until they died.

This footage also shows Israeli soldiers savagely running over a Palestinian young man with the vehicle while he is laying on… pic.twitter.com/elwu9nx9Gp

— Angelo Giuliano (@angeloinchina) January 9, 2024

Israeli media reported the killing of three "terrorists". For its part, the Tulkarm Brigade mourned the three men in a statement, identifying only one, Yousef Khawli, as one of its fighters.

"Yousef Khawli was a fresh university graduate, and he was preparing his house to form his own family", Hussein Ali, a resident of the Tulkarm refugee camp, told TNA.

"Ahed Mousa was the son of a family who moved from Gaza in the early 1990s, and he was also a fresh graduate looking for work to help his parents. Tareq Shaheen was a worker, and it was his body that the occupation's jeep rolled over. It took medics half an hour to identify him because he was disfigured", he pointed out.

"Tareq was from Tulkarm city, while Ahed and Yousef were from the refugee camp, all three from working-class families, all good young men with dreams and hopes for the future", he noted.

"An hour later, the occupation surrounded the camp and raided it, bulldozed the already bulldozed streets, and caused more damage to the infrastructure", he added.

Tulkarm: Israel's police release body cam footage of the termination of three terrorist in Tulkarm.
As you can see in the video from the helmet cameras of the Special police units, there were terrorists armed with M16s and pistols, and after an exchange of fire began with the… pic.twitter.com/eyvKlebaGN

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) January 9, 2024

Faisal Salameh states, "The damage caused a cut of electricity and water from the refugee camp".

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians north of Jerusalem at an Israeli military checkpoint. The victims were identified as Mohammad Abu Eid, 37 years old, Duha Abu Eid, 31 years old, and Ruqayya Jahalin, five years old.

Israeli media quoted Israeli forces saying that their soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian vehicle driven by Mohammad Abu Eid, who was accompanied by his wife Duha, after they tried to run over them and injured one female soldier.

The couple were parents to four young children. Their family denied Israeli forces' accusation on Monday. They spoke to the media at their house in the village of Biddu, north of Ramallah.

The damage caused by the Israeli occupation forces after raiding Tulkarm refugee camp.. pic.twitter.com/qSfCwtTZlB

— Palestine Now (@PalestineNW) January 9, 2024

"Mohammad was a construction worker. He and his wife had four children, two girls and two boys", Nimer Abu Eid, a relative of the victim, told Palestinian media.

"It is impossible", said Abu Eid, denying Israeli claims. "He [Mohammad] and his wife were going to attend a funeral in the village of Beit Iksa [on the other side of the checkpoint]", he added.

Video footage released by the Israeli army showed a car entering a checkpoint without slowing and approaching two soldiers at a very close distance, then driving through the checkpoint as soldiers opened fire at it.

Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian child Ruqayyah Abu Dahouq near Beit Exa military checkpoint in occupied Jerusalem, yesterday. pic.twitter.com/JuRggOCKLN

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) January 8, 2024

In the incident, a five-year-old girl, Ruqayya Jahalin, was killed by Israeli soldiers' fire. The child was in a separate vehicle.

"Ruqayya was with her mother in a public transportation minibus, going to visit relatives in Beit Hanina, on the other side of the checkpoint", Ruqayya's grandfather told TNA on Monday.

"It is a very hard loss; our feelings are indescribable", said the grandfather. "I would protect her from anything; it feels like she fell off my hand. May God have mercy on her soul", he exclaimed.

"The Israeli army called us and said that Ruqayya was killed and that they took her body to examine her death conditions and will give it back to us", added the grandfather.

On Tuesday, Ruqayya's grandfather told TNA that Israeli forces hadn't returned his granddaughter's body two days on and that they hadn't called the family back.

"A bullet found its way into the van and killed a 3 or 4-year-old young lady."

He is describing Israel killing a Palestinian child.pic.twitter.com/oBHUIvLmqQ

— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) January 8, 2024

Israeli forces have increased the number of checkpoints in the West Bank since 7 October, while it also closed several roads for Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israeli raids continue to ramp[up across the West Bank, especially in its northern cities and refugee camps.

Since 7 October, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 340 Palestinians. Throughout 2023, Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces, and settlers reached 527 out of the 22,554 for all of historical Palestine.

In the first nine days since the beginning of 2024, Israel has killed 126 Palestinians, including 21 in the West Bank.