March 12, 2023: Jihad Mohammad Wasfi Al-Shami, 24, was killed by Israeli forces near the Surra military checkpoint in the Nablus area.
Israeli troops opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle near the Surra military roadblock in the Nablus area, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, killing three Palestinians.
A fourth person who was in the car was taken into custody by Israeli forces; two workers who were nearby were wounded.
The three men who were killed were identified as Jihad Mohammad Wasfi Al-Shami (24 years), Odai Othman Rafiq Al-Shami (22 years), and Mohammad Raed Naji Al-Dabeek (18 years).
All three were declared dead on the scene after Israeli occupation forces fired many rounds of live ammunition into the vehicle they were driving. A fourth young man, Ibrahim Awartani, was abducted.
Palestinian resistance fighters exchanged fire with the soldiers invading the area.
WAFA News reported, quoting eyewitnesses, that two workers were wounded by shrapnel from the Israeli occupation bullets, while they were in the area where the three young men were targeted.
The Israeli army claimed the soldiers located and confiscated three M16 automatic rifles, a pistol and several magazines of live ammunition.
The army added that the Palestinian who was taken prisoner was moved to an interrogation facility.
After the assassination, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Surra and seized surveillance camera recordings from commercial stores, in a move that local Palestinians claimed was meant to cover up the evidence of their crime.
The killing of the three young men brings the death toll since the beginning of 2023 to 84 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and paramilitary colonial settlers, including 15 children, a woman, and a prisoner in the occupation prisons.
12 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in that same time period (at least two of whom were killed in what eyewitnesses said was a traffic accident, but which was classified as an ‘attack’ because a Palestinian was driving).
Targeted assassinations are a direct violation of international law, which Israeli forces flagrantly violate on a weekly and even daily basis to kill Palestinians they suspect of involvement with resistance to the illegal Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land.
Jihad was from the Nablus district, in the northern West Bank. Source: IMEMC