Nablus is mourning the loss of loved ones following an Israeli army invasion that killed 11 people. “Loss is difficult as it is,” says newly widowed Umm Muhammad. “Loss because of the bullets of this ugly regime is indescribable.” 

In less than two days, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, and Jenin.

Ahmad Amer Abu Juneid, 21, was killed with a bullet to the head in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus; Sanad Samamra, 19, was killed in Hebron after an alleged stabbing attempt; Samir Ouni Aslan, 41, was killed with a bullet to the chest in the Qalandia refugee camp; and Habib Mohammad Abdelrahman Kamil, 25, and Abdelhadi Fakhri Nazzal, 18, were killed in Qabatiya, Jenin.

Amer Abu Zaytoun, 16, was shot and killed with a bullet to the head when Israeli forces invaded Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. Abu Zaytoun is the fourth martyr to be killed by the Israeli military during the first week of 2023.

The past few months have seen the evolution of two dynamics in parallel — the proliferation of “lone wolf” attacks, and the expansion of organized Palestinian armed resistance groups. Israel has worked hard to eradicate both types of resistance, yet it has had considerably less success in anticipating and preventing the actions of the lone wolves.

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.

Mahdi Hashash, a member of the armed Balata Brigade, was killed in an Israeli assassination attempt in Balata refugee camp as part of the ongoing Israeli campaign to root out armed resistance groups in the West Bank.