What Happened
On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces raided the occupied city of Nablus in the West Bank. The Israeli attack, on one of the most populous Palestinian cities, resulted in the killing of ten Palestinians and wounding of 102 more.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health, which released the names of the Palestinian victims, also said that hundreds of Nablus residents were treated for tear gas inhalation, as hundreds of canisters were thrown at Palestinian homes and neighborhoods throughout the raid.
Why
The Israeli military issued a statement following the bloody attack, saying that the target of their operation were two Palestinian resistance fighters.
A total of ten Palestinians were killed in the raid. Their names, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health are:
- Adnan Saabe Baara, 72,
- Abdul Hadi Abdul Aziz Ashqar, 61,
- Mohammad Farid Shaaban, 16,
- Tamer Nimr Minawi, 33,
- Mohammad Khaled Anbousi, 25,
- Musab Munir Awais, 26,
- Hussam Bassam Isleem, 24,
- Mohammad Abdul Fattah Abdul Ghani, 23,
- Walid Riyad Dkhail, 23,
- Jaser Jamil Qanier, 23.
The Timing
Two days prior to the Israeli raid, the United Nations Security Council, under intense US pressure, failed to put a draft resolution condemning illegal Jewish settlements in Occupied Palestine to a vote.
The draft was of a binding resolution that, in part, demanded that Israel should “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Instead, a statement was issued by the UNSC criticizing the ongoing constructions of illegal Jewish settlements.
Even though Israel still protested the statement, some media reports suggested that a deal was reached between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the US.
According to Axios news website, citing US officials, Israel agreed to “decrease the number of Israeli military raids in Palestinian cities” and to “several economic steps that will increase Palestinian tax revenues” in exchange for the reinstatement of the so-called “security coordination” and a downgrade of the UN resolution.
The Israeli attack on Nablus soon after the UN criticism and the Washington-brokered deal suggests that Tel Aviv is unphased by international criticism and refuses to abide by any understanding involving the PA, even if that understanding is achieved through US mediation.
Larger Context
Moreover, the latest raid is a continuation of an Israeli pattern where Israeli occupation forces raid Palestinian cities and refugee camps, killing a large number of Palestinians without engaging in prolonged combat. This latest raid, for example, lasted for only three hours. These operations and other violent Israeli military tactics have resulted in the killing of 61 Palestinians since the beginning of the year.
Last year also witnessed unprecedented violence. In October, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said that 2022 promised to be the deadliest year for Palestinians since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005.
Reactions
While international reactions to the latest violence in Nablus remain muted, leading Palestinian resistance groups warned that the latest Israeli crime will not pass without retaliation.
Though a war on Gaza remains a possibility, the nature of Palestinian retaliations has changed in recent months, thus the Palestinian response could take any form, from firing rockets towards Israel to the targeting of occupation soldiers or armed settlers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
