The three Palestinians killed overnight were identified as Jawad Rimawi, 22, Thafer Rimawi, 21, and Mufid Ikhlayel, 44. A fourth Palestinian was killed later on Tuesday morning after carrying out a car-ramming that left one Israeli wounded.
Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli military forces during raids overnight on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, including two brothers.
The three Palestinians were identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as Jawad Rimawi, 22, Thafer Rimawi, 19, and Mufid Ikhlayel, 44. Earlier reports stated Thafer’s age to be 21; a ministry of health representative confirmed to Mondoweiss, however, that he was in fact 19.
The Rimawi brothers were killed when Israeli forces raided the Ramallah-area village of Kafr Ein, in the central West Bank. According to the health ministry, Jawad was shot with live ammunition in the stomach and pelvic area, and Thafer was shot in the chest.
Local sources from Kafr Ein told Mondoweiss that confrontations erupted during an Israeli raid on the nearby town of Beit Rima. The boys were reportedly shot while the soldiers were pulling out of Beit Rima, passing through the neighboring village of Kafr Ein.
On Tuesday morning, videos of the two boys’ parents mourning their deaths at the hospital were circulated widely on social media, as Palestinians grieved the loss of the two young men.
Israa Rimawi, the mother of the two slain men, was shown in a widely circulating video saying “we are giving our souls, we are giving our souls,” and a woman trying to console her as they left the hospital, saying “just imagine them in heaven.”
According to local media reports, Jawad had recently graduated from Birzeit University in Ramallah with a business administration degree, while Thafer was studying technology at the same university. A general strike was declared in Ramallah on Tuesday in mourning over the two brothers.
The martyr of Beit Ummar
Mufid Ikhlayel was killed after he was shot in the head by Israeli forces while they were raiding the town of Beit Ummar, in the southern West Bank district of Hebron. According to local news reports, the raid began shortly after 10 p.m. on Monday night, and lasted several hours into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 22 Palestinians were injured in Beit Ummar, six with teargas, five with rubber bullets, two others while running, and nine with live ammunition, including Ikhlayel. He was declared dead shortly before 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
Ma’an News Agency also reported that Israeli forces attacked medics in the town as they attempted to treat the wounded.
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Palestinian officials and political factions condemned the killing of Ikhlayel and the Rimawi brothers on Tuesday. The office of President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement calling for international intervention and for the U.S. government to assume responsibility for the continued killing of Palestinians by the Israeli military, which the U.S. provides with billions of dollars of funding each year.
Police kill Palestinian after car ramming
Separately, a Palestinian was shot by Israeli police on Tuesday morning on a highway outside Ramallah after carrying out a car-ramming that injured one Israeli. Israeli media reported that the woman, 20 years old, was being treated in an Israeli hospital for a head injury, but was reportedly in stable condition. Palestinian media outlets reported the woman to be an Israeli soldier, and images of the woman after the ramming dressed in an Israeli army uniform have been circulated on social media.
Israeli media reports said that the Palestinian man, who was shot after a brief police chase, was also taken to an Israeli hospital where he was declared dead.
Israel’s Kan Public broadcaster identified him as 45-year-old Rani Mamoun Fayz Abu Ali, a father of five from the Ramallah-area town of Beitunia. At the time of publication the Palestinian Ministry of Health had not yet confirmed his identity.
2022 has been one of the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied territory in recent years. The killing of the Rimawi brothers, Ikhlayel, and Abu Ali brings the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers this year to 210.
Of the 210 Palestinians killed in 2022, 154 were killed in the West Bank, 20 of whom were from the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate.
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