On Thursday morning, November 24, Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus bid farewell to Mohammad Hirzallah, 30, Mohammad Kishik, 22, and Ahmad Shehadeh, 16.
The three Palestinians died within 24 hours of one another, the result of Israel’s ongoing military campaign against armed Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, Operation Break the Wave.
On Tuesday evening, November 22, Israeli forces invaded Nablus City in order to escort a number of Israeli settlers into the Joseph’s Tomb area of the city, sparking confrontations in the area with Palestinian youth, as well as armed Palestinian resistance fighters.
According to Wafa News Agency, Israeli forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound grenades at Palestinians as they confronted the soldiers. Kishik was shot in the stomach on Tuesday night, and was declared dead by the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Wednesday night.
During the same Israeli raid, Ahmed Shehadeh, 16, was shot with a bullet to the heart. According to the health ministry, Shehadeh was injured shortly after midnight on Wednesday, and quickly succumbed to his wounds.
Neither Kishik or Shehadeh were reported to be part of the armed resistance groups who confronted Israeli forces during the raid.
Death of a Lion
On Wednesday evening, at Ramallah’s Istishari hospital, Mohammad Hirzallah succumbed to wounds he sustained during a military raid on Nablus earlier in July of this year.
Hirzallah, identified as a member of the Lion’s Den resistance group, was injured on July 24 while confronting Israeli forces invading the al-Yasmina neighborhood of the Old City of Nablus. Two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed during the military operation, Muhammad Azizi, 25, and Abdul Rahman Sobh, 28.
Just 16 days after Hirzallah sustained his injury, 18-year-old Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, “the Lion of Nablus,” was extra-judicially assassinated by Israeli forces on August 9, sparking the growth of the armed resistance group. Al-Nabulsi was believed to have been the target of the July military operation where Hirzallah was injured.
Since the start of the year, when Israel first launched “Break the Wave,” the Israeli security apparatus has escalated its policy of extra-judicial killings and “liquidation”. As a result, more than 204 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, Gaza, and historic Palestine since the start of the year.
Many of the Palestinians killed were non-combatants, and more than a quarter of those killed are children and minors.
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