For the first time since the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising), the Israeli occupation army carried out an aerial assassination of Palestinians near Jenin.
Palestinian media reported on Wednesday evening that an Israeli plane carried out an assassination of a Palestinian group in the Jalameh region near the northern city of Jenin in the Occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it targeted the Palestinians with a “drone after its members (allegedly) opened fire in the Jalameh area.”
BREAKING: Israel's air force targeted a car, assassinating three young Palestinian men near Jenin. pic.twitter.com/5Mg4GuNZm2
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) June 21, 2023
The Israeli occupation army also claimed that “the targeted cell carried out shooting operations in Israeli towns.”
The last time the Israeli occupation army targeted Palestinian activists in aerial assassination was in 2006, the military’s statement said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Civil Defense said that three bodies were found inside a vehicle, and that the “occupation forces are coordinating with the Israeli ambulances to seize the bodies of the (Palestinian) martyrs.”
Al Jazeera reported that the occupation forces were shooting at Palestinians who were trying to go to the location of the targeted car to reclaim the bodies.
Change of Policy
Israel’s Channel 14 reported that the change in the assassination policy using aerial bombing is supported by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Palestinian Teenage Girl Succumbs to Wounds Sustained in Israeli raid on Jenin
In response, the Jenin Brigade, a branch of the Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades issued a statement, stating:
“A group of our heroes bled in a cowardly assassination carried out by an occupation army drone. (The assassinations) will not weaken our resolve and the enemy’s leadership must bear the punishment.”
The Jenin Brigade revealed the names of the three Palestinians as Suhaib al-Ghoul and Muhammad Owais of the Al-Quds Brigades, and Ashraf al-Saadi of the Fatah military wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
(Al Jazeera, Palestine Chronicle)
