TULKAREM, (PIC)
Nine Palestinian resistance fighters were martyred on Saturday after an Israeli drone bombed two Palestinian vehicles in two separate airstrikes near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bombed a vehicle carrying five young men on the road between the towns of Attil and Zeita, north of Tulkarem, which set the car on fire and completely charred the car along with the bodies of the martyrs.
A few hours later, a second airstrike on a vehicle in Bal’a town, east of Tulkarem, killed four other resistance fighters.
The Israeli occupation army announced in a statement that its warplanes targeted a group of armed resistance fighters in Tulkarem.
The Director of Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem, Dr. Amin Khader, confirmed on Saturday that one of the people killed in the first attack was Haitham Baleidi, 25, from Tulkarem refugee camp, leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, along with four martyrs whose remains are charred.
Local sources reported that when Palestinians and civil defense forces arrived at the site of the targeted car to extinguish the fire, the IOF raided the site and prevented ambulance crews from approaching. The soldiers inspected the vehicle and the martyrs’ bodies, before more military reinforcements were summoned, accompanied by four bulldozers, the sources added.
The Israeli bulldozers began extensive destruction operations in the western part of the city, destroying infrastructure, Palestinian vehicles, and public property.
The Palestinian factions in Tulkarem condemned the assassination crime, mourned the martyrs, and declared Saturday a day of general strike and mourning.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, mourned its field commander Abdul Jabbar Al-Sabbagh (Al-Dahruki), and one of the founders of the Tulkarem Brigade, Ahmed Muhajneh, in addition to the rest of the martyrs.
