| 2023 Nablus clash | |
|---|---|
| Part of Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
| Date | February 22, 2023 |
| Location | |
| Casualties | |
| Death(s) | 11 |
| Injuries | 102 |
On 22 February 2023, Israel conducted a military incursion into the Palestinian city of Nablus. After an undercover unit located the house in which two militants were believed to be residing, a firefight broke out, resulting in the deaths of 3 militants. Fighting between Israeli reinforcements and other militants left 4 suspected militants and 4 other Palestinians dead. A further 102 people suffered injuries. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Separate investigations by the New York Times and the Washington Post showed Israeli forces targeting and shooting at civilians. [5] [6] The Israeli military said the events were being investigated.
A month after a similar raid in the Jenin refugee camp and another on February 6 in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho city, in an operation that began around dawn, an Israeli special operations group managed to enter Nablus and penetrate as far as the Old City. Their stated aim was to search for members of the Lions' Den group. Some hours later, they identified two of the youths they were hunting, Husam Bassam Isleem (24) and Muhammad Omar “Juneidi” Abu Bakr (23), as they walked into the Habalah Quarter of the town. [1] Around 10 a.m. a firefight broke out between the Israeli unit and the two men holed up in the house. Around 20 minutes later, the undercover squad called for reinforcements, whereupon an estimated 50 military vehicles, with around 150 soldiers, launched a large-scale foray into the city while blocking off all entries and exits. [1] [7] As fire was exchanged, at some point, a third fighter, Waleed Dakhil (23), managed to join Juneidi and Isleem. All three were killed. [1] Elsewhere in the city, other militants from the Nablus and Balata Brigades were shot dead during confrontations with Israeli forces. [1] The Israeli troops began their retreat at 1:30 pm, leaving considerable evidence of widespread damage wherever they had been operating. [1]
Of the 11 killed, one person dying on the following day, seven [8] were identified as militants. [1] Three elderly men, Adnan Sabe Bara (72); Abdelhadi Abed Aziz Al-Ashqar (61), and Anan Shawkat Anna (66), also died, the last of side-effects of tear gas intoxication the day after. The fourth civilian casualty was a boy, Mohammad Farid Shaaban (16). [1] [9] Overall some 102 people were injured, 82 of whom having been shot by live ammunition from Israeli gunfire. Six people are reported to be in critical condition. [4]
The Palestinian Health ministry said that dozens were being treated for bullet wounds, some critical. Two of the dead were said to be the subject of the arrest operation and killed following the Israeli forces demolition of the building they were occupying. [10] [3] [4] The Health ministry also said that two journalists were lightly injured by live fire. [10]
The Biden administration joined a growing number of governments condemning what the IDF said was a counter-terrorism operation and the Palestinian Authority again called on the United Nations Security Council to act. [11] A general strike the next day was declared in the West Bank to mourn the victims of what the Palestinians describe as a massacre. [12] Subsequently, six rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip and Israel responded with air raids on Gaza. [13] Many countries issued statements condemning the incursion and others expressing concern about the violence, including Algeria, [14] Bahrain, [15] Egypt, [16] Germany, [17] Iran, [18] Lebanon, [19] Kuwait, [20] Oman, [21] Qatar, [22] Saudi Arabia, [23] and Turkey, [24] the UAE, [25] and Yemen. [26]
On 1 March 2023, the New York Times published an analysis of videos covering the timeframe of the incursion. While three targets in a safe house and another gunman were killed, videos show that "Israeli soldiers used deadly force against unarmed Palestinians, killing at least four people who did not appear to pose a threat". The military said that "the circumstances" of the raid were under examination. [6]
On 10 March 2023, the Washington Post published a visual reconstruction that showed that "while responding to what they claimed was a gunman, Israeli forces fired at least 14 times from inside their armored vehicle as it moved down a street and then came to a halt next to a short wall behind which [the] civilians huddled. The Israelis continued firing even after those people would have been visible from the vehicle’s windows, the analysis shows." The military said the matter is "under examination." [5]
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
The Murder of the Hatuel family was a shooting attack on May 2, 2004, in which Palestinian militants killed Tali Hatuel, a Jewish settler, who was eight months pregnant, and her four daughters, aged two to eleven. The attack took place near the Kissufim Crossing near their home in Gush Katif bloc of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. After shooting at the vehicle in which Hatuel was driving with her daughters, witnesses said the militants approached the vehicle and shot the occupants repeatedly at close range.
The 2004 Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip took place when the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation "Days of Penitence", otherwise known as Operation "Days of Repentance" in the northern Gaza Strip. The operation lasted between 29 September and 16 October 2004. About 130 Palestinians, and 1 Israeli were killed.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.
The 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict, known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains, was a series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during summer 2006, prompted by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006. Large-scale conventional warfare occurred in the Gaza Strip, starting on 28 June 2006, which was the first major ground operation in the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented between August and September 2005.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2007.
In 2008 the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Hot Winter, also called Operation Warm Winter, in the Gaza Strip, starting on February 29, 2008 in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas onto Israeli civilians. At least 112 Palestinians, along with three Israelis, were killed, and more than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis were injured.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when about 200,000 of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes settled in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has been involved in about 15 wars involving organizations in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing 2023–2025 war (46,000+) is higher than the death toll of all other wars in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict combined.
The 2006 Gaza cross-border raid, known by Palestinian militants as Operation Dispersive Illusion was an armed incursion carried out by seven or eight Gazan Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 who attacked Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions near the Kerem Shalom Crossing through an attack tunnel. In the attack, two IDF soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed, four IDF soldiers were wounded, one of whom was Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.
Gaza-Israel clashes began on 11 November 2018, when a botched Israeli covert operation carried out in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip killed seven Palestinian militants and one Israeli soldier. Exchanges of fire lasted for two more days, until a cease fire was achieved with Egyptian mediation. Some minor incidents and protests followed some two weeks after the cease fire, with decreasing intensity.
The year 2023 in Israel was defined first by wide-scale protests against a proposed judicial reform, and then by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which led to a war and to Israel invading the Gaza Strip.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2022.
Events in the year 2022 in Palestine.
The Lions' Den is a Palestinian militant group operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2023, including the 2023 events of the Israel–Hamas war.
Events in the year 2023 in Palestine.
On 26 January 2023, the Israel Border Police and the Israeli army conducted an armed raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which is in Area A of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and under Palestinian civil authority. According to The Jerusalem Post, the objective was to prevent a planned terrorist strike and arrest three wanted Islamic Jihad militants.
On 3 April 2023, the Israeli army conducted a military operation in Nablus, resulting in the death of two Palestinians and injuries to several others. The operation was in response to allegations that two armed fighters were involved in the shooting of two Israeli settlers in Huwara in February.
On 3 July 2023, the Israeli military conducted a major assault on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The Israeli government stated that the goal of the operation, named Operation Home and Garden, was to target militants within the camp.
During the Israel–Hamas war, Israeli forces have carried out multiple ground incursions, occasionally accompanied by airstrikes, into several Palestinian cities and refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Jenin and Tulkarm. The Israeli incursions have led to clashes with Palestinian militants. 806 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the conflict began, including 143 children. The United Nations recorded more than 800 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians between October 2023 and May 2024. Israel has arrested an estimated 10,000 West Bank Palestinians between 7 October 2023 and August 2024. On 15 December, Doctors Without Borders reported 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in recorded history.
