Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 650 people in the West Bank including 147 children, in addition to killing more than 40,000 in the Gaza Strip during the same period.
Israel has killed Palestinian youth, Jibril Ghassan Jibril, who was released under last year’s Gaza truce deal which was mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on Tuesday during an airstrike overnight in the West Bank.
The 20-year-old was among five people killed by Israeli occupation forces during the attack that targeted the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem.
According to Palestine’s news agency, Wafa, the list included Mohannad Qarawi, 19, Adnan Jaber, 15, Mohammed Yusif, 49, and Mohammed Elayyan, 16. Al Araby TV separately reported that the Israeli attack mainly targeted Jibril.
The bodies of the Palestinians killed were taken to the Tulkarem Governmental Hospital following the Israeli attack.
The attacks came amid wider escalations in the West Bank since Israel waged the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
According to Wafa, Israel has since killed 650 people in the West Bank, including 147 children. The figure is in addition to more than 40,000 killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip during the same period.
Palestinian parties have declared a general strike on Tuesday in Tulkarem to protest the killings in Nur Shams. Al Jazeera reported there have been around 50 such Israeli air attacks in the West Bank since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Jibril Ghassan Jibril
Israel had detained Jibril on October 31, 2022, and sentenced him to 14 months in prison. He was then released late last year as part of a week-long truce deal between Israel and Hamas.
Mediated by Qatar and Egypt, last year’s deal lasted between November 24 and December 1, where at least 240 Palestinian women and children were freed in exchange for the release of around 109 Israeli captives from Hamas in Gaza.
According to Al Araby TV, Jibril had joined Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades upon his release. Israel has been chasing Jibril since his release and detained his parents several times in an attempt to pressure him to turn himself in.
The Palestine Centre for Prisoner Studies said on July 5 that Jibril’s father, Ghassan Jibril, was detained at least four times.
Speaking to Quds News on Tuesday, Jibril’s brother said his young sibling had vowed to repay the people of Gaza following his release during the truce.
“Upon his release under the deal, my brother said ‘I wanted to pay part of the debt to the people of Gaza’,” he said.
Hamas slammed the “new Zionist assassination operation” in a statement, affirming that Israel’s war on Palestinians “will not bring security and stability to the occupation.”
The movement also mourned the five Palestinians killed during the attack, stressing “that their pure blood will not be in vain.”
Meanwhile, on August 12, Israeli occupation forces killed 18-year-old Tariq Dawood in the occupied West Bank, also following his release last year under the week-long truce deal.
Similarly, Israeli occupation forces had chased Dawood since his release and detained his parents more than 33 times to pressure him to surrender himself. They also raided his house on May 5 and destroyed it as well as his neighbours’ homes after failing to find him.
Israeli settlers have also been increasing their attacks against Palestinians, the latest of which was seen on Monday where a Palestinian man, identified as Khalil Khalawi, was shot dead.
According to Wafa, Israeli settlers have carried out 1,334 attacks in the West Bank during the first half of the year alone.
Israel’s detainments of Palestinians in the West Bank have also skyrocketed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with more than 9,550 detained during this period.
On Monday, Palestinian prisoners’ rights organisations, including Ramallah-based Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, said Israel has continued to detain 552 bodies of Palestinians.
“Since the start of the genocide against our people in Gaza, the occupation has escalated its policy of holding bodies. Since the war, the occupation has held 149 bodies, which constitutes more than half of the martyrs held since 2015,” the organisations said.
