The Palestinian news agency has reported that a 20-year-old man died of wounds a month after being shot during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank.
The WAFA news agency said on saturday that Ezzedin Kanan, from the town of Jaba near the Jenin refugee camp, was shot in the head on July 3 during one of the most violent Israeli military raids in the occupied Palestinian territory in two decades.
An offshoot of the secular nationalist Fatah party, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, claimed Kanan as one of its “fiercest fighters” and pledged to avenge his loss.
Palestinian men flanked the mourning procession for Kanan as his body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag and adorned with a headband from the group, was carried through his home village of Jaba.
Kanan's death brings the total to 14 killed in the raid, which lasted two days and included airstrikes, hundreds of ground troops and bulldozers that were used to raze roads and buildings.
Israeli forces claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the Jenin refugee camp and that it had confiscated thousands of weapons, bomb-making materials and caches of money during the raid.
Inevitable violence under occupation
Since early 2022, Israel has intensified near daily military raids in the occupied West Bank. It claims the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants.
The ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with more than 170 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2023, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable result of 56 years of illegal occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel.
They also point to the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and violence committed by extremist settlers under the protection of Israeli police.
In September 2022, the United Nations General Assembly Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel. The Commission found that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli Government’s de-facto annexation policies.
The UN Mideast envoy told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the upswing in violence is being fueled by growing despair about the future, with the Palestinians still seeking an independent state.
“The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addressed the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on all sides,” Tor Wennesland said.
