Israeli Raid in Tulkarm – Palestinian Youth Killed, Five Injured

Harith Muhammad Awfi, 22, was killed by Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarm. (Photo: via social media)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Harith Muhammad Awfi, 22, was shot in the heart by an Israeli sniper stationed in one of the houses of the Tulkarm refugee camp.

A Palestinian youth was killed and five people were injured, including a woman, during an incursion by occupation forces on Thursday into the city of Tulkarem and its refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that its crews transferred Harith Muhammad Awfi, 22, from inside the camp to the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital after he was shot by Israeli forces.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA cited eyewitnesses inside the camp who said that Awfi was shot in the heart by an Israeli sniper stationed in one of the houses.

Faisal Salama, head of the Popular Committee in the Tulkarm refugee camp, said that five civilians were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the services neighborhood in the camp, including a woman and a young man with disabilities. 

Salama also noted that Israeli forces were preventing medical teams from accessing the camp.

Earlier on Thursday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society confirmed that its crews treated a 57-year-old woman injured by shrapnel from an Israeli bombardment in Tulkarm camp. She was taken to a hospital for treatment, though her condition was not disclosed.

According to WAFA, Israeli forces bombed a second site in Tulkarm camp and entered Tulkarm city from multiple directions, with bulldozers accompanying the forces. 

Snipers were deployed across various locations in the city and around the camps, amid clashes and loud explosions.

Fierce Clashes

On Thursday morning, the Israeli military launched an operation in Tulkarm city and the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, sparking confrontations between Palestinian resistance fighters and the occupation forces. 

The Al-Quds Brigades – Tulkarm Battalion said in a statement that its fighters detonated an explosive device near the Balawneh axis, targeting Israeli infantry forces with gunfire and reportedly achieving direct hits.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed that its aircraft struck a group it identified as militants in Tulkarm.

In a separate incident early Thursday, Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces shot a Palestinian near the Anata checkpoint, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli media claimed that the man attempted a car-ramming attack near the checkpoint.

West Bank Front

Cities, towns, and camps across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem are witnessing frequent raids and incursions by occupation forces and illegal Jewish settlers. 

The intensity of these operations has escalated alongside Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has persisted for over a year.

The Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank since the start of the genocide on Gaza has claimed the lives of over 760 Palestinians, 18 of whom are women and 166 children, and over 6,500 recorded injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health numbers.

Last September, Israeli media reported that Israel now considers the West Bank a battlefield, following days of escalated operations.

Four Palestinians Killed amid Israel’s Military Raids, Clashes in West Bank

In addition to the casualties, significant damage has been inflicted on the infrastructure of cities like Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, and Tubas amongst others.

The United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that the first week of September has been the “deadliest” for Palestinians in the West Bank since November of last year.

“Many people were killed, including seven children,” UNRWA said on X, adding that “As the war rages in Gaza, violence and destruction in the West Bank increase by the hour.”

(PC, AJA)

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