An Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted and shot down by Palestinian freedom fighters while it was conducting a reconnaissance mission over a camp for refugees in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
“We and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (affiliated with the Fatah movement) managed to shoot down an Israeli drone this morning at dawn, and we succeeded in controlling it after targeting it with bullets,” the Jenin Brigade, which is associated with the Al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, said in a press release on Sunday.
Men in Jenin were seen using the Israeli quadcopter in a video that was circulated on social media.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a brief statement, adding that the army drone crashed in Jenin late at night.
read more: Retaliation, Two settlers were shot and killed in the West Bank
The Tulkarm Brigade, which is a member of the al-Quds Brigade, confirmed in a press release that they fired a barrage of bullets at the nearby Einav settlement on Saturday. They also added that they shot at a car that settlers were riding in, causing injuries, according to reports.
The developments take place amid a recent 15-month spike in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
According to the WAFA news agency, Israeli soldiers stormed Jenin on June 19 and fired live ammunition, stun grenades, and toxic gas. Over 90 people were hurt, including at least seven Palestinians, one of whom was a minor.
The ensuing hours-long exchange of gunfire between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli army soldiers saw the first use of combat helicopters in decades.
Ahmed Saqr, 15, Ahmed Daraghmeh, 19, Khaled Darwish, 21, Qassam Sariya, 19, and Qassam Faisal Abu Sirriya, 29, were among the victims of the assault, according to the health ministry.
Nibal Farsakh, a media and information officer for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), claims that Israeli forces also targeted four ambulances in Jenin.
Farsakh claimed that they were “directly targeted with live ammunition, causing material damage to the structure and the glass of the ambulances themselves.”
In order to treat those who were hurt on the scene, Farsakh added that medical teams were initially denied access and eventually arrived late. Some required immediate medical attention because they were “in a very serious condition.”
According to a statement from the Israeli military, the mission of the raid was to arrest two suspects, but when its soldiers came under fire, there was a “massive exchange of fire.”
It acknowledged that seven of its soldiers were hurt in the assault.
The Palestinian photojournalist Hazem Nasser was shot and hurt during the Jenin raid, according to the Quds News Network.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed close to 190 Palestinians since the year 2023, including 26 children. The death toll includes 36 Palestinians who died between May 9 and May 13 as a result of an Israeli army assault on the besieged Gaza Strip that lasted four days.
