Israeli raids and ‘lone wolf’ operations continue

Israeli soldiers search a house during a security operation in the Jiftlik area in the Jordan Valley region, August 2, 2023. (Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images)

A Palestinian worker shot six Israeli settlers in the illegal settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, while elsewhere the Israeli army continued its onslaught on Palestinian communities in Nablus and Aqbat Jabr refugee camp.

Key Developments (July 31 – August 3)

• Two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Monday, July 31 — Muhammad Farid al-Zaarir, 15, near Hebron, and Muhannad Suleiman al-Mazaraa, 20, from Jerusalem.
• On Tuesday, August 1, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that one of the Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces during Operation Home and Garden in Jenin refugee camp last month was in fact wanted for a robbery attempt 22 years ago, having managed to remain in hiding and under the radar in Jenin since 1999. The 47-year-old was identified as Muhammad Mur’eb, who escaped Israeli prisons and remained outside Israeli captivity since 2001.
• Israeli forces continued intensifying military invasions and operations against Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps in a years-long mass arrest campaign. On Tuesday, July 31, Israeli military forces invaded Allar village, north of Tulkarem, assaulting civilians and holding at least one Palestinian man hostage as he was leaving for work during the early dawn hours. Another Palestinian man, a former political detainee, Hamzah Freij, was arrested north of Tulkarem.
• Israeli forces invaded Nablus on Tuesday and arrested at least one man, identified as Muhammad Kilani, a relative of the slain Tamer Kilani, a senior fighter with the Lions’ Den who was extra-judicially assassinated in 2022 in an espionage operation by an undercover Israeli special operations unit using a bomb implanted on a motorcycle.
• On Tuesday afternoon, a Palestinian carried out a shooting operation in the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim outside of Jerusalem, injuring at least six Israeli settlers, with at least one in critical condition. According to Israeli military reports, the shooter, Muhannad Muhammad Suleiman al-Mazaraa, 20, worked as a cleaning serviceman in the settlement. Al-Mazaraa had run towards a shopping center and opened fire with a pistol when an armed Israeli security guard shot and killed him. The armed security guard was an Israeli border policeman, according to a report by the Israeli Police. In an audio note recorded by the 20-year-old and shared across social media platforms and journalist groups, al-Mazaraa said: “if I died, if I am martyred, if they take my body, let it be. If you are to bury me, do it with no factional flags over my body.” The right-wing radical and extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, went to the site of the operation to proclaim in a public speech that “a policy for distributing the largest amount of arms possible to settlers is a policy that must prove its existence.” Immediately following the operation, a military order was issued denying all Palestinian laborers entry to the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
• Hours following the Ma’ale Adumim attack, at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a failed stabbing attempt was reported near a bus station in Hebron, south of the West Bank.
• On Wednesday, just after midnight, Israeli forces invaded Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, a flashpoint for confrontation by Palestinians in the last three years due to continued and increased settler invasions attempting to formally annex the area. Israeli forces continued their invasion in Nablus, targeting refugee camps, including Balata and Askar refugee camps, and shooting live ammunition directed at the chest, back, and head of Palestinians, according to local reports. Within one hour, at approximately 1:00 a.m., at least three Palestinians were hospitalized with critical injuries to the abdomen and thigh areas, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Israeli military forces continued their operations across the West Bank. At approximately 6:00 a.m. Israeli forces invaded Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho and surrounded a home as armed confrontations erupted between Palestinian youth and the Israeli military. At least four Palestinians were arrested during the invasion. By Wednesday afternoon, a drive-by shooting operation was reported in the Jordan Valley, with the attackers successfully escaping.
• On Thursday, August 3, during the early dawn hours, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Abu Zeina during a military raid on the town of Burqin near Jenin. Abu Zeina is from Jenin refugee camp.
• Also on Thursday, and in light of the continued aggressive assault by the Israeli regime and in collaboration with the armed forces of the Palestinian Authority, a video released to media by the Qassam Brigades in the West Bank emphasized that armed resistance is growing and will persist.
• In light of an escalating policy of administrative detention, the Committee of Palestinian Political Detainees Under Administrative Detention released a statement on Thursday launching a civil disobedience campaign. The statement noted that some detainees have spent up to 15 years in Israeli prisons without charge or trial. Consequently, detainees have declared a state of “open confrontation” with the Israeli prison authorities, which includes returning medicine, the possibility of a collective hunger strike, refusing to stand for headcount, and other practices of civil disobedience.

Important Figures

• Israeli forces and settlers have killed 215 Palestinians since the beginning of the year.
• The number of Palestinian political detainees under administrative detention has reached a record high since 2003, reaching 1,200 Palestinians (including children and minors), who are held without charge or trial.
• Israel continues to illegally withhold the bodies of 138 deceased Palestinians as bargaining chips, denying their families the right to burial.

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