Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades say Israeli forces assassinated 2 of its leaders in West Bank

By Awad Rajoob

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement, announced Wednesday that Israeli forces assassinated two of its leaders.

Thair Omar Amara and Mamoun Saleh Shreim were killed when Israeli troops stormed Izbat al-Jarad in the city of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.

According to witnesses cited by Anadolu, the Israeli troops surrounded a house in the area before withdrawing from the vicinity and the city.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA confirmed the deaths of the two men, reporting that a young man and a child were injured by Israeli gunfire. Among the wounded was Amara’s son, who was with his father during the raid.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams transported two Palestinians to the hospital after receiving them from Israeli forces in Izbat al-Jarad. One, aged 30, was shot in the shoulder, while the other, a child, suffered shrapnel injuries to the head.

WAFA reported that Israeli military vehicles had entered Tulkarem from the western entrance earlier, while a special unit positioned itself in Izbat al-Jarad, where the targeted house was located.

According to the agency, Israeli troops surrounded the home, ordering those inside to surrender through loudspeakers as drones flew overhead amid intense gunfire.

The official Palestine TV aired footage showing Israeli military vehicles moving toward the targeted house.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces reportedly raided the village of Deir Qaddis, west of Ramallah, blocking Red Crescent medics from entering and confiscating their communication equipment, according to Palestinian witnesses and the Red Crescent.

The escalation came as Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that two Israelis were injured in an alleged car-ramming attack near the Modi'in Ilit settlement west of Ramallah. Both sustained minor injuries, according to the report.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 43,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

More than 780 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 6,300 injured by the Israeli army in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio