The body of Daoud Rayan, a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday when he rammed a West Bank checkpoint, was carried through the streets of Beit Duqqu, a town north of Jerusalem. MOHAMAD TOROKMAN / Portal
Four Palestinians, including the attacker and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) military official, were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem on Thursday (November 3) amid a surge in violence related to the Israeli-Israeli conflict.
In the afternoon, the Israeli army announced the start of an operation in Jenin, a stronghold of armed groups in the north of the West Bank. “There are two martyrs shot dead by the occupying forces and four people injured (…)” the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.
According to local sources, one of the two people killed is Farouq Jamil Salameh, 28, a commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, the PIJ’s armed wing. Earlier in the day, a 20-year-old Palestinian man was killed by security forces in Jerusalem’s Old City after he stabbed three police officers.
Before dawn, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in clashes in Beit Duqqu, a West Bank village north of Jerusalem. According to witnesses and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 42-year-old Daoud Mahmoud Khalil Rayan succumbed to “live ammunition to the heart” during a march to honor a Palestinian killed the day before after leading an anti-Israel attack.
This violence comes two days after the Israeli general elections, which should allow Benyamin Netanyahu to return to power thanks to his allies, the religious parties and those of the extreme right.
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Siege of Nablus lifted
After a series of deadly attacks in March and April, the Israeli army carried out more than 2,000 raids in the West Bank, particularly in the Jenin and Nablus areas. The clashes they caused left more than 120 dead on the Palestinian side, the highest number in seven years and the second since the end of the second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, according to the UN.
Around Nablus, the Israeli army has lifted the three-week siege after a soldier was killed by a group of local militants called Areen Al-Oussoud (the “cave” or the “lion’s den”). The Israeli forces had since multiplied their interventions, resulting in the deaths of several people, including the leader of this movement. The army also blocked all access to the city of around 200,000 inhabitants. After an assessment of the situation, “it was decided to lift the general closure of the entrances and exits of Nablus,” the army said in a statement.
After assessing the situation in the West Bank, “it has been decided that the general closure of the entrances and exits from Nablus will be lifted,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
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