September 1, 2023: Abdul-Rahim Fayez Ghannam, 36, was killed by Israeli forces during a military assault on the village of Aqaba, northwest of Tubas, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdul-Rahim Fayez Ghannam, 36, after shooting him with live rounds in the head. The invading soldiers also wounded three Palestinians.
His death came after many military vehicles invaded Aqaba and surrounded a home while firing live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades.
The Health Ministry said the soldiers shot four young men, including the slain man, with live fire and two with rubber-coated steel bullets, in addition to causing many to suffer bruises and the effects of tear gas inhalation.
A large army force infiltrated the village of Aqaba, besieged the home of Abdul-Raziq Mohammad Abu Arra, 51, where armed resistance fighters apparently sheltered, and fired missiles at the property, before abducting Abdul-Raziq’s son, Bakr Abu Arra, 30.
The Israeli army also blocked ambulance crews and media outlets from reaching the invaded area, and fired live rounds at Palestinian ambulances, causes damage.
Armed Palestinian resistance fighters fiercely resisted the invasion, exchanging heavy fire with the attacking Israeli forces.
According to eyewitness accounts, the army invaded the Tubas Turkish Governmental Hospital and positioned sharpshooters on its rooftops.
In a press statement, Nidal Odeh, the head of the Ambulance and Emergency in Tubas, said, “We dealt with several injuries from bullets, gas and rubber during the occupation’s storming of the town of Aqaba, and an ambulance was directly hit by the occupation’s bullets.”
Media sources said that soldiers besieged and bombed the home where Ahmed Walid Abu Arra was trapped, in an attempt to compel him to surrender himself.
Israeli Army Radio claimed that Abu Arra carried out a shooting attack near the “Hamra” checkpoint in the Jordan Valley one month ago, which slightly injured a female settler.
It was added that the besieged home belongs to destroying the house of the citizen Abdul-Razeq Qassem Muhammad Abu Arra, a member of the wanted young man’s family.
On Friday afternoon, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in front of the Tubas Turkish Governmental Hospital to receive the body of the slain young man.
Mourners carried the body on their shoulders, through the streets to his family home, in Aqaba village, where his loved ones said their final goodbyes.
After the Friday prayer, mourners performed the funeral prayer over the body, before laying him to rest in the martyrs’ cemetery in the village.
Abdul-Rahim was from the village of Aqaba, northwest of Tubas, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank. Source: IMEMC