Israeli Raid Kills 3 Palestinians Accused of Deadly Settler Attack

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Facts

  • During a raid into the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli forces on Thursday killed three Palestinian fighters, two of which Israel said shot dead a British-Israeli settler in the West Bank and her two daughters in April.1
  • Lucy Dee was killed last month alongside her two daughters when a car they were traveling in was shot at in the West Bank in April. The sisters died immediately from their injuries while their mother succumbed to her wounds in hospital several days later; they lived in the Israeli settlement of Efrat.2
  • Palestinian militant group Hamas confirmed that the men killed were members of its armed wing and that the two suspects carried out the April attack. Witnesses said Israeli undercover units surrounded a house in the old city exchanging fire with the three men, leaving the structure badly damaged by explosions and bullet holes.1
  • Meanwhile, in the village of Huwara, outside Nablus, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli soldier and was then shot by him and a second soldier, according to the Israeli military. This incident was unrelated to the shootout in Nablus's old city.1
  • The raid comes the same week as the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan from a hunger strike while in Israeli detention, which sparked an exchange of rocket fire and airstrikes between Gazan militants and the Israeli military. Adnan, a prominent figure among Palestinians, was affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.3
  • The situation in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel has worsened in the last year due to an increase in Israeli raids in the West Bank following a spree of Palestinian attacks in Israel. Israeli raids have primarily focused on the northern West Bank, and some 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the raids were launched, while 50 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.4

Sources: 1Reuters, 2CNN, 3Guardian, and 4Associated Press.

Narratives

  • Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel's actions in the West Bank continue to push Palestinians into a corner as it assassinates members of Palestinian resistance factions. It's ultimately Israel that is to blame for the increase in violence throughout the holy land. Emboldened by international silence after killing more Palestinians last year than in any other calendar year since the Second Intifada, the occupation is becoming even more violent.
  • Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem Post. Those killed in Thursday's raid were terrorists who brutally murdered an innocent woman and her two daughters. Israel will not allow terrorists to have a safe haven anywhere in the West Bank, and every Palestinian attack will be either countered or responded to with lethal force. Lucy Dee's family will at least have some resolution knowing that the killers have been neutralized.