Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, while people still filled the streets, Israeli forces stormed a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northwest occupied West Bank and began firing heavy gunfire into the residential area.
During the invasion of Iktaba, residents say Israeli forces fired indiscriminately and “shot at anybody in the streets who tried to run.”
Israeli special forces surrounded the home of the al-Kholi family, where it killed three Palestinians in their early 20s just outside the home. The three were identified as Yousef Ali Al-Kholi, 22, Ahed Mousa, 23, and Tareq Shahin, 24. According to eyewitness accounts and video footage, Israeli forces ran over the body of Tareq Shahin with a military vehicle.
During the raid, a fourth Palestinian was shot and injured and was detained by the Israeli forces.
Locals described the raid and the killing of the three young men as an “assassination.”
Al-Kholi’s 12-year-old cousin Ahmad, who witnessed the attack, told Mondoweiss that he and his cousins tried to run away from the area when they heard the heavy gunfire but couldn’t find a safe escape between the large number of soldiers.
“[The army] surrounded the whole house; they were everywhere. The soldiers were uncountable, and there were three or four military jeeps too,” Ahmad said.
“We hid behind the car, and we kept watching, and we saw my cousin die- he was screaming, and I ran away when he started screaming. They were shooting at him,” the boy recounted of the final moments of his beloved older cousin’s life.
Yousef’s father, who was inside the house during the raid, said he was shocked by the ambush on his house.
“The gunshots were crazy. Everyone who was outside their house was shot at,” he said, “we wanted to give them first aid, but we couldn’t get out the door.”
Ahmad, wearing a headband soaked in Yousef’s blood that read ‘Tulkarem urgent response,’ told Mondoweiss that the headband was gifted to him by Yousef.
Once the coast was clear, the pre-teen rushed to bring the headband outside so he could soak it in the blood of his martyred cousin.
When asked why, he responded: “because he is my cousin, and I love him.”
“I love him as much as the sea- actually even more.”
‘Deliberately’ shot dead
In a video widely circulated on social media, the military was seen indiscriminately shooting at a group of young men, seemingly as they tried to flee the area, killing three of them and running at least one over with their military vehicle.
As the video begins, the group of six young Palestinian men can be seen scrambling and running outside the al-Kholi family home just as the Israeli raid begins. At least one rifle can be seen being thrown from one young man to another.
As the group rounds the corner of the driveway, they quickly double back after encountering Israeli forces, who are not visible in the frame in the video. Almost instantly, Israeli forces began firing toward the young men, causing three of them to fall to the ground, including the young man who was holding the rifle. The video footage does not show him engaging in any armed confrontation with the soldiers when he was shot.
A few seconds later, an Israeli soldier can be seen coming into the frame and firing more bullets into the young man, who still appeared to be alive but was incapacitated and lying on the floor.
The final seconds of the video, published by Quds News Network, show an Israeli military jeep running over the incapacitated body of Tareq Shahin.
“The soldiers could have just surrounded them and arrested them, but instead, they decided to assassinate all of them. They deliberately killed them. They were alive, but they continued to shoot them again,” Al-Kholi’s aunt Rana said, describing what rights groups have documented as “extrajudicial killings” carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians.
“It’s not abnormal behavior for [Israel’s] occupation; they always kill,” she added.
According to Wafa News, the military blocked the entrance of ambulances at gunpoint from reaching the youths. The medical crew was only allowed access to the area after the army’s withdrawal about an hour later.
The Palestinian news agency reported that a fourth youth was also shot and injured by the occupation soldiers during the military offensive and detained despite his injuries.
After the Israeli military withdrew around 9:30 p.m., they returned with a bulldozer to raid the Tulkarem refugee camp and wreaked havoc in the area until 7:00 a.m.
The military destroyed civilian infrastructure, including roads, deployed snipers on the roofs of the tall buildings, and shelled a Palestinian home.
According to the Red Crescent, nine people were injured by shrapnel as a result of the missile.
Israel cracking down on resistance
The Israeli military has intensified its military raids and crackdowns on Palestinian resistance over the last two years. Military incursions have intensified across the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023, as the army conducts mass arrests, which often turn deadly.
Since then, Israeli fire has killed at least 340 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
One Palestinian fighter, a member of the Al Aqsa Bridges in Tulkarem, described the occupation as “delusional with the assassinations; they assassinate innocents,” referring to the raid on Monday.
Armed resistance in Tulkarem has continued to grow in spite of Israeli military raids, which have aimed at quashing resistance in places like Tulkarem’s Nur Shams refugee camp, where Palestinian youth are choosing every day to take up arms to resist Israel’s occupation.
In comparison to Israel’s heavily armed and funded military, Palestinian resistance groups, primarily made up of men in their 20s, have limited capabilities, which are focused mainly on defense during Israeli military raids and attacking Israeli occupational structures such as military checkpoints and illegal settlements.
“The occupation is always and forever over and over again trying to put an end to our struggle, which is deeply rooted in the Palestinian people, and it is difficult to end it,” continued the fighter who preferred to stay anonymous for his safety.
Echoing those same sentiments, Yousef al-Kholi’s father told Mondoweiss: “This occupation must end and get out of our land. We want to tell the occupation that enough is enough. Enough killing. Enough blood. Enough violating our rights and international laws.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Israeli forces ran over the body of Yousef al-Kholi with a military jeep. It was the body of Tareq Shahin that was run over by Israeli forces.
Empire, 2024: the all-American **Clockwork Orange**…
POTUS (as *Alex*…) at last, realizes ‘the error of his ways’ when forced to undergo a form of aversion therapy, i.e., made to view the scenes of horrific violence he had enjoyed as all-too-willing ‘perpetrator’…
POTUS/Alex [recalling the therapeutic ‘event’…]: it was *horrible*…
THERAPIST: you felt ill this afternoon because you’re getting better…you see, when we’re healthy, we respond to the presence of the hateful with fear and nausea…you’re becoming healthy, that’s all…
https://youtu.be/Gbeji0Rqz5Y?si=XOjF66eYvuBdGGMR
This is the ultraviolent regime that commenters here – just as Jon S – defend and they have the gall to label the Palestinian resistance ‘beasts’. That footage is revolting and surely portrays a war crime of a serious nature. Zionist Israel is a morally-illegitimate state that must be stopped as soon as possible. Any Jewish person with a conscience should repudiate the connection that this state falsely makes with them.