On Friday, an Israeli army operation in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, claimed the lives of three Palestinians and wounded ten others.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli forces opened fire on the vehicle in which the three guys were traveling and killed them.
Wafa said that Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians in the vicinity, hurting ten of them.
A photographer for AFP spotted a bullet-riddled white truck in a location where Israeli forces have intensified their operations in recent months.
The photographer reported seeing the bodies of the three men in the Jenin morgue. Yusef Salah, 23, Baraa Lahluh, 24, and Laith Abu Srur, 24, all from Jenin, were recognized.
The Israeli army stated in a statement that its troops had conducted an operation in Jenin to search two locations for weapons.
The soldiers were fired upon as they arrived at the first place, and they replied before spotting a suspicious vehicle on the side of the road en route to the second location, according to the report.
“Terrorists shot upon the soldiers from the vehicle, and the soldiers neutralized them,” the army claimed, adding that they found weapons, including two M-16 assault rifles and ammunition, at the scene.
West Bank hotspot
In and around the Palestinian armed factions’ bastion of Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army has increased its raids.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a popular TV reporter for Al Jazeera who was Palestinian-American, was killed last month in Jenin while documenting an Israeli army operation.
The Palestinian Authority, Al Jazeera, and Qatar, the channel’s home country, all accused the Israeli military of murdering the journalist. Multiple journalistic investigations have pointed in the same direction.
A Palestinian investigation concluded that the journalist, who was shot while wearing a bulletproof vest with “press” printed on it and a helmet, was killed in a war crime.
Israel initially disputed the charges, claiming that she may have been killed by a Palestinian gunman, but later admitted that it could not rule out the potential that Israeli soldiers were responsible.
Following an internal review, the Israeli army has not yet disclosed its findings.
The Israeli police initiated the internal probe in response to an international outcry when Abu Akleh’s coffin was nearly dropped at her funeral when officers attacked the pallbearers.
The Israeli police completed their investigation into the violence at the burial on Thursday without disclosing any conclusions.
Ned Price, a spokesperson for the State Department, stated that the United States was seeking further information regarding the investigation into the burial.
Price told reporters in Washington, D.C., that “certainly, in our experience, these investigations and their findings are routinely made public.”
Next month, Vice President Joe Biden is set to visit Israel and the West Bank.
