At least five Palestinian youths have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of people near Al-Tawhid Mosque in the city of Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, September 11.
According to the Palestinian News and Information Agency WAFA, the young men who were killed in the airstrike were identified as Mohammad Saeed Hussein Sawafta (19 years old), Majd Burhan Jamil Sawafta (23 years old), Qais Saeb Rateb Sawafta (24 years old), Yassin Ahmed Ali Sawafta (22 years old), and Talaba Mahmoud Jamil Basharat (18 years old).
WAFA also reported that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) prevented the ambulance vehicles of the Palestinian Red Crescent from reaching the targeted site, however, its medical staff was able to retrieve the corpses of the five slain people. The IOF’s incursion of Tubas city continued after the airstrike, imposing a curfew in the city, one day after launching a military operation in Tulkarm city and its refugee camp, in which at least two Palestinians were killed.
The Israeli military’s recent incursions of Tubas and Tulkarm came less than one week after announcing the withdrawal of its troops from the West Bank following a 10-day military offensive that was considered as the largest since 2002.
However, despite the IOF’s deadly attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, they continue to face setbacks and resistance.
On Wednesday September 11, an Israeli soldier sustained critical injuries as a result of an attack carried out by a Palestinian truck driver near the illegal Israeli settlement of Givat Asaf in Ramallah. The driver, who rammed his truck into a surveillance room at an Israeli military checkpoint near the settlement, was killed by IOF’s gunfire, and was taken away by Israeli soldiers. The attacker was identified as Hayel Issa Daifullah from the village of Rafat located between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Later in the day it was confirmed that the injured soldier succumbed to his injuries.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army’s radio station announced that two IOF soldiers have been killed and eight others injured after an Israeli Air Force helicopter carrying medical personnel crashed in Rafah, in the southern Gaza strip. The helicopter was trying to land in order to evacuate a soldier, who was seriously injured during battles with Palestinian resistance fighters in the area before it impacted the ground. According to an investigation conducted by the Israeli military, the aircraft crash was due to an accident and not due to any strikes by Palestinian resistance fighters as the accident occurred moments before it was about to land, and it did not fall from a significant height.
