Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including one of the founders of the Tubas Brigade, during a military incursion into the Jordan Valley area of the northern West Bank early Tuesday morning.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in a statement that three young men were martyred by Israeli occupation gunfire in the Tubas Governorate. They were identified as Ahmed Jamal Daraghmeh, 26 years, who was shot in the chest, neck, and head; Mohammed Sameeh Bayadsa 32, shot in the head; and Osama Jibr Zalat, 31, shot in the chest.
In the predawn hours of the morning, Israeli forces, supported by several bulldozers, stormed the Al-Far’a refugee camp. The army deployed snipers in multiple locations, as clashes erupted and explosions were heard in the camp. This led to the killing of the two young men, Zalat and Bayadsa. Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out acts of sabotage and destruction of infrastructure in the camp’s neighborhoods. They simultaneously invaded numerous homes, conducted searches, and assaulted the residents.
Later, an Israeli force invaded the nearby city of Tubas, where clashes erupted, leading to the killing of Daraghmeh, the commander of the local resistance group, the Tubas Brigade, Daraghmeh. Israeli forces also arrested a man in Tubas after raiding his home in the city, as a means of putting pressure on his son to surrender himself.
Sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that Israeli soldiers obstructed its teams’ work in the Al-Far’a refugee camp and prevented them from transporting the body of the martyr Osama Zalat to the hospital.
Mohammed Abu Khalil, a resident of the Al-Far’a refugee camp, told Mondoweiss that the two martyrs who were killed in the camp were not resistance fighters and that they were “directly targeted and killed” by the Israeli soldiers. “The two young men were martyred in their homes, targeted by snipers; they did not engage in any confrontation,” Abu Khalil said.
“At around 10 p.m., we knew that the occupation army came to the Nasariya area, then entered the camp, and then there was an exchange of gunfire and bulldozing in the streets. We heard that a young man was martyred by the occupation’s gunfire. The mother of one of these martyrs wanted to go down to see her nephew, who was martyred. Her son stood by the window to check if the situation was safe and free of the army, and they shot him with a sniper,” Abu Khalil continued.
During their raid, as Israeli forces bulldozed streets in Al-Far’a, they destroyed a part of the home of Iyad Soboh, a resident of the camp. He spoke to Mondoweiss, saying, “The occupation army invaded the Al-Far’a camp with a D9 bulldozer and started bulldozing the streets. They bulldozed the street here and also demolished the balcony of my house.”
He continued, “There was direct gunfire from the occupation army towards the homes of the camp, all to terrorize and frighten us.” Soboh confirmed Abu Khalil’s account that the martyrs were in their homes, looking out from their windows when they were shot by Israeli snipers.
He pointed out that “the occupation’s goal is clear, which is to intimidate, threaten, and frighten people, and this is their message. This is what is called terrorism, and for us, it has become something normal because we know what they are doing.”
In the city of Tubas, Mondoweiss met with one of the resistance fighters in the Tubas Brigade, who condemned the assassination of Daraghmeh, emphasizing that his assassination was not the end of resistance in Tubas. The fighter said, “Our message is clear, there is no room. Ahmad’s martyrdom brings out a million more Ahmeds. This is our life, and this is our resistance.”
He sent a message to Israeli forces, saying, “Our message is that we will continue on the same path and will not deviate by 1%. We will respond in kind, all people in the camp are with the resistance, and whoever is against it is of no concern to us.”
The resistance member mentioned that before his assassination, Daraghmeh was frequently pursued by both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation. “There were pressures from both sides on him. When he was pursued by the PA, he went to the Jenin camp and remained steadfast until his last breath. Everyone knows Ahmed and knows what he established and what he left behind,” the fighter told Mondoweiss.
Regarding the policy of arresting the families of resistance members and those wanted from the camp – it’s a new policy Israel uses – to pressure the fighters to surrender themselves, he responds, “The families who are arrested, may God be with them. Their arrest does not affect even 1% of us. Anyone who enters this path knows it and knows its challenges.”
The Tubas Brigade issued an official statement on their Telegram Channel, mourning the martyr, field commander Ahmad Daraghmeh, whom they described as one of the leaders and founders of the Tubas Brigade. The statement added, “We affirm that the blood of our leaders and the fighters of our people will remain a curse haunting the occupier and its settlers. These crimes will rebound on them with the blood of their soldiers and settlers, and the enemy will see what awaits them and what we have prepared for them.”
Is an endgame imagined? Is there a way this makes sense?