Last Wednesday saw one of the deadliest Israeli raids in the West Bank since the Palestinian uprising or Intifada of 2000–2005.
A top Qatari official has criticised the international community for its lack of response to repeated crimes committed in Palestine by Israel, state-owned Qatar News Agency reported.
Hassan bin Abdullah Al-Ghanim, the speaker of Qatar’s Shura Council, said the Gulf state believes such indifference towards Israel “facilitates its impunity, as peace efforts become meaningless efforts, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital. East, impossible,” the report said.
The comments by Al-Ghanim were delivered during the opening session of the conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
It came after Israeli forces carried out a new deadly massacre on Wednesday that left 11 Palestinians killed and dozens more injured, in what has been described as one of the deadliest military raids in the occupied West Bank since the Palestinian uprising or Intifada of 2000–2005.
Early on Wednesday morning, Israeli undercover agents disguised as religious Muslims entered the Old City of Nablus on foot. They hid inside a mosque in the al-Halabeh neighbourhood next to a home where two Palestinian fighters were seeking refuge.
According to locals, the Israeli soldiers continued to hide inside the mosque until the morning, when dozens of other soldiers, including snipers on rooftops, took up positions in and around the home and neighbourhood.
At least 150 Israeli soldiers in dozens of armoured vehicles raided Nablus and used live ammunition on residents in the area.
Hossam Isleem, 24, and Mohammad Abdulghani, 23, two fighters who belonged to the Lions’ Den armed organisation in Nablus, resisted arrest before being killed a short while later. Locals said Israeli forces attacked the home using rocket-propelled grenades and armed drones.
Three elderly men, aged 72, 66, and 61, as well as a 16-year-old boy were among the victims of the raids on Wednesday, while hundreds more were injured by tear gas inhalation.
The raid occured just a month after a similar raid about 41 kilometres (25 miles) away, that claimed the lives of 10 Palestinians at Jenin refugee camp.
Deadly Israeli attacks have increased in Jenin and Nablus, which have emerged as the centres of armed Palestinian resistance.
In a statement responding to the Wednesday raid on Nablus, Qatar warned such systematic crimes by Israel risks provoking an explosive situation in the occupied territories.
“Qatar expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the city of Nablus in the West Bank, which led to the death of a number of Palestinians and the injury of dozens,” the Gulf state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statement added that it considers the latest raid is “an extension of these forces’ continuous and systematic crimes against the Palestinian people and a flagrant violation of the resolutions of international legitimacy.”
Deadly West Bank raids
Since last year, Israel has increased its military raids as well as its detainment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The UN previously said 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, with at least 225 killed, including 53 children.
The increase in attacks has raised concern over another intifada, or uprising, against the Israeli regime.
The first intifada took place between 1987 and 1993, where more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed.
The second intifada took place between 2000 and 2005, where Israel killed at least 4,973 Palestinians.
According to Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Addameer, there are currently 4,780 Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli bars, including 160 children.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in a bloody war in 1967, widely known as “the six day war” and naksa, or “setback”.
Within six days, the Zionist state captured the majority of Palestine while forcibly dispossessing at least 300,000 Palestinians.
