Two Palestinian men were killed in the early hours of Sunday during an incursion by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian officials named them as Aseed Farhan Abu Ali, 21, and Abd al-Rahman Suleiman Abu Daghash, 32. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said both died after being shot in the head.
Abu Daghash was in his home when he was shot by an Israeli sniper, according to Taha al-Irani, the head of the popular resistance committee in the camp. He said it was the third Israeli raid on the camp this year, damaging electricity and water services.
The IDF said in a statement forces entered the area to dismantle militants’ “operational command center and dozens of ready-to-use explosive devices.”
Palestinian state media WAFA said Israeli forces “stormed the camp in large numbers, accompanied by military bulldozers, amid heavy gunfire, and began bulldozing the main street and infrastructure in the camp, while (Israeli) occupation snipers mounted the roofs of citizens’ homes.”
Najeeb Adeeb, a medic inside the camp, said the incursion involved more than 60 Israeli military vehicles and heavy gunfire. His team treated seven shrapnel injuries in the field and evacuated two others to a hospital in Tulkarem, he said.
One IDF soldier was “moderately injured” during the operation by gunfire fragments, the IDF said.
“(During the) counterterrorism activity, IDF engineering vehicles operated in the area in order to uncover explosive devices that were planted under the roads in the area,” the statement said, adding that the vehicles found multiple explosive devices including at least one IED, all of which exploded.
Suspects also “opened fire and hurled explosive devices at the forces, who responded with live fire. Hits were identified,” the IDF said.
Israel raided the camp earlier in September, leaving a Palestinian man killed and another two injured.
The camp was built in 1952 to house refugees fleeing their homes in the war that followed Israel’s creation. The UN refugee agency says the camp has 13,519 refugees registered to it, with overcrowding, unemployment and poor sanitation all issues.
A general strike has been announced in the camp and Tulkarem.
