By Romana Rubeo  

Hamas praised the “heroic double operation” in a statement, saying that it “sends a clear message that the resistance will remain strong”.

The commander of the Gush Etzion Brigade, along with a soldier and several Jewish settlers, were injured in a double attack targeting two settlements in the West Bank late Friday night, Israeli media reported. 

According to reports, the first explosion occurred at the Gush Etzion Junction, an illegal Jewish settlement located north of Hebron (Al-Khalil), followed by another attack at the entrance to the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement.

The Israeli military issued a statement confirming that “two security incidents occurred in the Gush Etzion Brigade, and we neutralized the attackers.”

The army also noted that it launched an investigation to determine if the two incidents were connected.

Three Zionist soldiers and several settlers were injured, including the commander of the Israeli regime's Etzioni Brigade, in two car bombings in Gush Etzion and Karmei Tzur near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad congratulated the successful… pic.twitter.com/W9QDKsdnea

— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) August 31, 2024

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth cited security sources as saying that the operation was carried out using two cars.

Israeli forces responded by closing the entrances to Hebron and deployed significant reinforcements. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) also reported that the army imposed a siege on Hebron following the incidents.

Two Palestinians Killed

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Saturday morning that two Palestinians, Muhammad Ihsan Yaqin Marqa and Zahdi Nidal Abu Afifa, were killed by Israeli army gunfire on Friday night.

The ministry also said in a brief statement that Israeli forces withheld the bodies of the two Palestinians after shooting them.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA confirmed that the two young men were killed near the illegal settlements of Karmei Tzur and Etzion.

WAFA added that the occupation forces raided their homes at dawn and conducted field investigations with their families.

With the killing of  Marqa and Abu Afifa, the death toll in the West Bank since October 7, 202, has risen to 675 people, according to official Palestinian data.

A car bomb explodes inside a gas station in the settlement of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. #Israel

🔴Intensive deployment of occupation forces in the settlement of Gush Etzion, near Hebron, after the double operation. pic.twitter.com/NzDDzpIBeg

— Ωmega News (@satch_omega) August 30, 2024

Clear Message

The Palestinian movement Hamas praised the “heroic double operation” in a statement, saying that it “sends a clear message that the resistance will remain strong, persistent, and ongoing as long as the brutal occupation and its aggression against our people and our land continue”.

According to the statement, “this qualitative operation carries symbolic significance due to its location in Khalil al-Rahman in the southern West Bank, and its timing, as it comes at a critical moment when we are witnessing the escalation of the occupation’s aggression against the northern West Bank governorates, and its massacres and genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

“This heroic operation represents a new blow to the occupation’s security system,” the statement continued, especially because it comes “amidst the state of alert within the entity, which will not enjoy security on our land and will continue to receive more painful strikes from our heroic resistance fighters.”

Hamas also called “upon our people and resistance to further confront and respond to the ongoing crimes of the occupation”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.