Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Jenin

Showing posts with label Jenin. Show all posts

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Another "innocent child" in Jenin who was a combatant

Defense for Children International-Palestine writes:

Rafat Omar Ahmad Khamayseh, 15, was shot by Israeli special forces while leaving his grandfather’s house in Jenin refugee camp around 7:30 p.m. on September 19, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. As he left the house, Rafat saw Israeli special forces exiting three Palestinian licensed cars and surround the home of the father of a Palestinian man wanted for arrest. Rafat fled, yelling, “Special forces! Special forces!” One Israeli soldier chased Rafat and shot him in the abdomen from a distance of 10 meters (33 feet).

While nearly all of the reports on the Jenin incident identify Khamayseh as being 22 years old, photos indicate that he probably really was 15.

And that he was not exactly an innocent child.

Yet even if we take DCI-P at their word that all he was doing was warning terrorists that the IDF was there, that makes him legally a militant and a legitimate military target.

The US Department of Defense Law of War Manual (revised July 2023) says that a civilian is considered to be taking a direct part in hostilities when he or she is "acting as a guide or lookout for combatants conducting military operations."

The ICRC agrees. In its document "Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities Under International Humanitarian Law" it says, "a person serving as one of several lookouts during an ambush would certainly be taking a direct part in hostilities although his contribution may not be indispensable to the causation of harm."

This is exactly what DCI-P is admitting that Khamayseh was doing. His warning endangered the Israeli forces and therefore he became a combatant and legitimate target, no matter what his age.

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Today's Jenin raid was remarkable - and it shows how Israel adheres to human rights law in even impossible conditions

From Times of Israel:

The Israeli military arrested three members of the Hamas terror group during a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Monday morning, marking the first overt entry of forces to the camp since a major operation was carried out in the area two months ago.

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security agency, and Border Police said troops entered the camp and nabbed Abdullah Hassan Mohammed Sobeh, Ward Sharim, and Mus’ab Ja’aydah.

The IDF said troops opened fire at the wanted gunmen as they attempted to flee a building when the forces arrived. One of the armed Palestinians shot in the leg and seriously wounded, and was taken by helicopter to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

An assault rifle belonging to one of the wanted Palestinians was seized, the IDF said.

The IDF said troops also responded with live fire against Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at forces in the area, and Palestinian rioters hurling stones.

A local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group said its gunmen opened fire at Israeli forces on the outskirts of the camp.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry said four people were lightly wounded by Israeli fire in the area and taken to nearby hospitals.

No Israeli soldiers were wounded in the operation.

The IDF did injured the captured terrorists, and transported them by helicopter to a hospital.

Imagine the difficulty of such an operation.

The goal, as always, is to arrest terrorists - not to kill them. The IDF knows that it will be attacked from all directions in a crowded camp that is filled with booby-traps, IEDs and angry youth with stones, firebombs and automatic weapons.

And in the end, no one was killed on either side. The terrorists were captured alive.

This must have involved many, many hours of planning, intelligence and practice.

But this result is always what the IDF wants to see. It doesn't want to kill people, but when under fire, soldiers must return fire towards the source. Nearly every person killed in the past two years were involved in fighting or members of terror groups. For urban warfare, this is incredible, and military experts know this.

But the media ignores all of that. "Human rights groups" insist on perfection in a war zone and that the IDF use peacetime, law enforcement standards when the enemy is often a heavily armed military group. As much as they can, Israel tries to live up to those standards, and it showed that today, even if it is not at all clear that the more flexible laws of armed conflict wouldn't apply to Jenin today.

The world is so obsessed with demonizing Israel that it ignores how unique it is for an army to have so few civilian casualties in urban war zones.

Try to find stories where US or British troops entered a crowded town and extracted wanted men under constant fire without killing anyone. If it has ever happened, it is incredibly rare. Yet the IDF strives to do that each and every time - and its success today proves that.

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The "child" killed by the IDF was an expert in building IEDs

Earlier this week I reported on Othman Atef Abu Kharj, a 17 year old who was killed during clashes near Jenin.

Most Palestinian media referred to him as a "child" ruthlessly killed by the IDF. Islamic Jihad, on the other hand, celebrated his ascension to Paradise as "a heroic mujahid knight" - but claimed that he was 18.

Now, Hamas-linked Felesteen writes a more detailed article about Abu Kharj, where we learn more of the truth.

Yes, his family confirms the teen was 17 - and they are proud that he was an expert on building IEDs.

[His brother] Mahmoud, 22, could hardly complete his talk about his younger brother, saying, "Othman was throwing his "elbow" IEDs one after the other towards the armored jeeps.

The young men resort to using various tools to confront the repeated incursions of the occupation forces into the cities and governorates of the West Bank, in whose camps and villages the resistance action is escalating. Among these means are Molotov cocktails, stones, "elbows", igniting tires and closing streets with them.

But Othman had mastered making "elbows" and using them in several confrontations against the occupation soldiers, which they did not like, so they decided to assassinate him.

Wikipedia Arabic describes "elbow bombs":

It consists of a short, serrated tube and is closed at both ends with two metal pieces, one of which contains a hole through which the ignition fuse passes into the interior, which is ignited with sulfur. It is stuffed with gunpowder or black sulfur.

His family knew that he went out if his way to attack soldiers. "They all knew his courage, which always put him at the forefront of confrontations against soldiers heavily armed and fortified with armored vehicles," the article adds.

This was a child soldier and an active militant. Even so, Defense for Children International ignores all the evidence and merely calls him a "Palestinian boy."

In English, he is an innocent child. In Arabic, he is a heroic Islamic Jihad mujahid - and also a child..

And the media doesn't want the truth to be published.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The new wave of terror may be hurting the Palestinian economy

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics published its labor report for the second quarter, and it shows that the number of Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements increased to 164,000 from 153,000 in the first quarter.

However, this is not the highest number for Palestinians working for Israelis. It reversed a year-long trend of fewer Palestinians working for Israelis.

In the second quarter last year, some 211,000 Palestinians worked for Israelis - 182,000 in the Green Line and 29,000 in the settlements. That number decreased by 13,000 between the second and third quarters.

A drop from 211,000 to 153,000 in less than a year is a dramatic change, before the modest rebound this quarter.

The Israeli GDP has continued to steadily increase during this time period so this drop doesn't seem to be a reflection of more general economic trends.

It seems likely that as terror attacks increased over the past 18 months that Israeli employers are getting more skittish about hiring Palestinians, worried that some workers might go on a murder spree.

Obviously, only a tiny percentage of Palestinian workers are potential terrorists. But there have been enough incidents of Palestinian workers in Israel who either instigated or facilitated terror attacks in Israel to make Israeli employers think twice before hiring.

Given that Israeli employers pay far higher salaries than Palestinian employers - this quarter the average daily wage increased to NIS 289, far more than double the Palestinian average - the "heroic Palestinian youth" of Jenin and Nablus appear to be making the lives of ordinary Palestinians worse.

But there are no true brave Palestinian who are willing to say that out loud.

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The shopping malls of Jenin show the "despair" of the youth

News articles like to talk about how the youth of Jenin and other places are so desperate, so hopeless, how they have nothing to look forward to in their miserable lives except death as martyrs.

These news stories never show photos of the malls of Jenin.

The Jenin City Center Mall has an array of high-end shops.

A cosmetics store features a brand new Barbie photo booth for the hopeless girls of Jenin to pose in.

It has seven stories of gleaming architecture.

It opened a year ago, providing jobs for hundreds of the same youths that we are told have no choice but to die.

And that isn't the only high end mall in Jenin. There is also the Taj Mall.

Look at these desperate youth celebrating a birthday party.

Clearly, these kids have no choice but to grow up and become terrorists.

The media has a narrative, and they don't want you to see anything that contradicts that.

(h/t Imshin)

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Islamic Jihad threatens reporters who take photos of terrorists

The Al Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad - Jenin Brigade today issued a warning, and a not so veiled threat, to any media that reports things it doesn't like:

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

* Notice issued by the Jenin Battalion - Military Media *

Media brothers, institutions and individuals,

We note to you that it is forbidden to carry out any media activity such as photographing people or places or otherwise inside the camp, specifically with regard to the capabilities and connections of resistance work, without permission from concerned brothers. Whoever disobeys bears responsibility for that. We note that the capabilities of the resistance and the sacrifices of the mujahideen are not a place for a press scoop.

I think they make themselves quite clear.

And it is almost a certainty that the international media will adhere to these rules.

Which is why you won't see photos of terrorists burying IEDs in their own streets, or booby-trapping houses of Jenin residents, or any of the other gross violations of human rights that the terror groups do daily in Jenin. And without photos, there will be no reporting. And without reporting, the only aggression being reported on is from the Israeli side.

Remember how reporters used to be brave and fearless in their commitment to telling the entire story no matter what the consequences?

Those days are long gone. Now we have reporters who stay in hotels in Tel Aviv and drive over to Ramallah and Jenin to parrot the terrorist talking points about how awful the Israelis are - and justify the lies by calling it a "narrative," before returning to their bars in Israel where they can boast about their "speaking truth to power."

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Abbas' visit to Jenin was either a success or a failure, depending on which media you read

On Wednesday, PA president Mahmoud Abbas visited Jenin for the first time in over a decade.

The visit was widely viewed as a belated attempt to assert that the PA is in control of the area, which no one really believes.

Hamas media says:

During his visit to Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, the President of the Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, showed disregard for meeting popular figures and representatives of the factions, as his visit was limited to the outer edges of the camp. This sparked anger and resentment among the people.

The official PA news agency Wafa paints an entirely different picture of the visit:

An atmosphere of relief prevailed, after President Mahmoud Abbas' tour in the city of Jenin and its camp today, Wednesday .

His Eminence began his tour in the Jenin camp, by laying a wreath of flowers on the tombs of the martyrs in the new martyrs' cemetery in Jenin camp. His Eminence also inspected the effects of the destruction left by the recent Israeli aggression, and was briefed on the progress of work in its reconstruction .

His Excellency stressed, during a speech, in the camp square in the midst of a mass audience, that the heroic Jenin camp is an icon of struggle, steadfastness and challenge, which withstood the aggression and made sacrifices, martyrs, prisoners and wounded for the sake of the homeland .

He said, "We came today to continue rebuilding the camp and the city, so that they are as they were and better, and we have not and will not forget the camps of Nablus, Jabal al-Nar, and all the camps of the homeland, and we will not forget Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Palestine. "

The President's speech was widely welcomed by the people of Jenin and its camp, who affirmed their support for the President's position and his emphasis on the importance of strengthening the steadfastness of citizens .

Same visit, opposite conclusions.

The Hamas site adds some interesting context. It notes that Abbas rarely leaves Ramallah to visit other Palestinian towns altogether, except to visit Bethlehem for Christmas. It also reminds the readers that three major Fatah figures were expelled from a funeral of the camps' "martyrs" due to anger at the PA, which was (as far as I can tell) not reported in official PA media.

In this case, Hamas media is probably closer to the truth.

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