Israeli raids in occupied West Bank kill six Palestinians
Nablus, Palestinian Territories - Six Palestinians were killed in sweeping Israeli raids on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, in what the army described as an assault targeting the emerging ‘Lion’s Den’ armed group. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that Wadih Al Houh, a leader of a new coalition of Palestinian fighters dubbed The Lions’ Den, had been among those killed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The Palestinian health ministry initially reported three dead and 19 wounded shot ‘by Israeli fire in Nablus’. Later statements said that two more Palestinians had died in Nablus, while another
Palestinian was also killed after being shot in the chest in overnight clashes at the village of Nabih Saleh, north of Ramallah.
The Israeli army said it had carried out a vast operation with police and intelligence officers targeting a site ‘used by the main operatives of the ‘Lion’s Den’’, describing it as a ‘headquarters and a workshop for making weapons’ of the militants’.
“The forces detonated the explosive manufacturing site,” the army statement added, which did not provide a death toll. “During the activity, multiple armed suspects were hit.”
At the death reported at Nabih Saleh, the army confirmed it had ‘spotted a suspect throwing an explosive device’ at soldiers, who opened fire. In a statement posted to Telegram, the nascent fighter group were defiant. “Surrender is the path of
humiliation,” it said. “It’s time for the lions to come out of their den.”
Violence has increased in recent months in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel, especially in the areas of Nablus and Jenin.
More than 100 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the West
Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.
Lapid, speaking on Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio, warned Palestinian fighters that ‘they need to know that we will reach them wherever they are’.