Photo: Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinian Mahdi Hashash in the West Bank city of Nablus on November 9, 2022. (Photo: Wajed Nobani/ APA Images)
Key Developments (Nov 7 – 14)
- Three Palestinians killed by the Israeli army
- Israeli forces continue assassination campaign of resistance militants, turn attention to Balata refugee camp.
- At least 56 Palestinians detained during army raids
In-Depth
Last week, the Israeli army’s ongoing military campaign against armed Palestinian resistance groups shifted its focus from the Old City of Nablus (after claiming to have quelled the Lions’ Den resistance group there) to Balata refugee camp, home to the armed Balata Brigade (or Katibet Balata in Arabic). On November 7, the army conducted its first large-scale military invasion of the camp,
marshaling a convoy of armored vehicles and dozens of soldiers to
arrest two teenage brothers, Wael and Yousef Musheh (15 and 16
respectively). Their family home was invaded and they were pulled from
their beds and beaten severely before being dragged out of their home
and detained by the army. Yousef Musheh was released today, November 14,
while Wael’s trial is scheduled for Tuesday, November 22, and faces
charges of being part of a militant cell.
During their arrest, members of the Balata Brigade responded to the
invasion by opening fire on the Israeli soldiers invading the camp,
which, according to the Musheh boys’ uncle, forced the soldiers to cut
short the abuse of the boys and hasten the army’s retreat.
On November 9, the army invaded Balata again. The purported target of the raid was Mohammad Abu Draa’ — going by the nomme de guerre
Al-Zankaloni — who evaded capture. Palestinian resistance fighter Mahdi
Hashash, only 15 years old, was killed in the raid after he was
reported to have opened fire on the invading force. Hashash was
nicknamed “the lion of the Balata Brigade,” reminiscent of the popular moniker of Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, the iconic “Lion of Nablus.”
Hashash’s funeral was reportedly attended by masked members of the
Lions’ Den, who carried Hashash’s body on their shoulders before he was
laid to rest.
The Balata Brigade, like the Lions’ Den (formerly the “Nablus
Brigade”), is one of several such “brigades” to form across the West
Bank since the start of 2022, initially as local offshoots of the
Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, but quickly evolving to become
cross-factional paramilitary formations. The Jenin Brigade is one of the most prominent examples of this cross-factional phenomenon. In an important feature on the rise of the Jenin Brigade, Mondoweiss Senior
Palestine Correspondent Mariam Barghouti explains the evolution of the
Jenin Brigade as an umbrella organization for the coordination of armed
activities between several diverse armed groups:
Although the Brigade initially functioned as a Jenin branch of
Saraya al-Quds (the Al-Quds Brigades, the PIJ’s armed wing), the Jenin
Brigade has now evolved into a more complex and politically unaffiliated
formation. It operates as an umbrella organization for a diverse set of
armed groups, and the political and factional ideologies of the various
fighters in the Brigade have taken a backseat to the immediate
objective of protecting the camp and repelling Israeli incursions.
“Each faction operates on its own,” 43-year-old Abu Mujahed, the
camp’s spokesperson for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (Fatah’s armed wing)
told Mondoweiss from a home that had harbored the two Palestinian escapees from the Gilboa Prison break, Munadel Nufeiat and Ayham Kamamji. “But when the army invades, we are all on the ground,” he said.
In addition to Hashash, two more Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army this week.
Rafat Al-Issa, a Palestinian worker who was shot dead on November 9
as he was crossing through an opening in the apartheid wall on his way
to work, became known as “the martyr of daily bread.” The Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq, told Mondoweiss
that it has documented three other similar incidents this year that
ended in the killing of Palestinians passing through these breaches.
And just this morning, a Palestinian teenage girl was shot dead by
Israeli soldiers as she was driving in a car in Beitunia, Ramallah.
Israeli forces claimed they shot her and another male passenger under
the pretext that she was carrying out a ramming attack, even though
later camera footage revealed that her car was moving slowly as it
happened upon Israeli soldiers who were raiding the area. The
Palestinian Ministry of Health initially misidentified her as a
19-year-old woman of another name, but later confirmed her identity as
15-year-old Fulla Masalmeh, who was to turn 16 tomorrow.
All the while, decentralized Palestinian resistance operations
continue, but no Israeli casualties or damages have been reported.
According to the United Nations Department of Safety and Security’s
daily Situation Report, three separate pipe-bomb throwings against
Israeli military posts in the West Bank were recorded in the last 24
hours alone — near Beit Ummar, the Beit El settlement, and Nabi Saleh,
while in the Jenin area armed fighters were reported to open fire at
Israeli military targets outside of the village of Zababda and at the
Jalameh military checkpoint. The Jenin Brigade also announced on its
Telegram account that the “Qabatiya groups” of Saraya Al-Quds
had managed to “target a military checkpoint and an occupation patrol
unit on a street between [the villages of] Qabatiya and Sannour” in the
Jenin governorate.
Important figures
- 189 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in 2022, 138 from the West Bank
Mondoweiss Highlights
Inside the “Wasps’ Nest”: the rise of the Jenin Brigade, by Mariam Barghouti |
