According to the latest Palestinian information, six Palestinians were killed during operations by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. According to Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid, a leader of a new group of Palestinian fighters dubbed the “Lion’s Den” is among the dead. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of “war crimes”.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three Palestinians were killed and 19 others wounded by shelling from Israeli forces in the city of Nablus. It later added that two other Palestinians had also been killed in Nablus. According to the ministry, a Palestinian was killed in another army operation near Ramallah. Initially, the Palestinian Ministry of Health spoke of a total of four Palestinians killed.
The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed that they, together with the police, have launched a large-scale operation against the “Headquarters and a Weapons Workshop” of the “Lion’s Den” group in Nablus. “Several armed suspects were hit by bullets,” the army said. According to Israeli Prime Minister Lapid, a leader of the group is among the dead. In the online service Telegram, the group emphasized that it was “time for the lions to come out of their den”.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Abbas condemned Israel’s actions in Nablus as “war crimes,” his spokesman Nabil Abu Roudeina said. Abbas is therefore “making contact to end this aggression against our people” in Nablus.
The head of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, Ismail Haniya, warned in a statement that the violence would “plunge Palestine into an escalation”.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Lapid said in an interview addressed to militant Palestinians that they need to know “that we will catch them wherever they are”. Israel will “never stop acting for its security and we will do what needs to be done”.
In recent weeks, the group of young Palestinian fighters from the “Lion’s Den” has launched a series of anti-Israel attacks from Nablus. The group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an Israeli soldier in the West Bank two weeks ago.
The group’s name refers to Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, nicknamed “The Lion of Nablus,” who was killed by the Israeli army in August. Al-Nabulsi was a commander of the al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of the West Bank’s ruling Fatah party, and had a strong following among young Palestinians.
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, violence has increased significantly in recent months. The Israeli army stepped up operations in the West Bank. According to a count by the AFP news agency, 22 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed in the confrontations since the beginning of October alone.
