On Wednesday, 22 February, Zionist forces invaded occupied Nablus and killed 10 Palestinians, including resistance fighters, elderly men, passers-by and a teen boy; they injured 97 more with their assault on the Palestinian people. As thousands of people have taken to the streets of Nablus in mourning for the martyrs, the Palestinian people and their resistance have affirmed that these ongoing crimes will not suppress or kill the Palestinian people and their resistance.
We salute and mourn the martyrs:
1. The elderly martyr Adnan Sabaa Baara (72 years old)
2. The martyr Mohammed Khaled Anbousi (25 years old)
3. The martyr Tamer Nimer Ahmed Minawi (33 years old)
4. The martyr Musab Munir Mohammed Awais (26 years old)
5. The martyr Hussam Bassam Aslim (24 years old)
6. The martyr Mohammed Omar Abu Bakr “Junaidi” (23 years old).
7. The martyr Walid Riyad Hussein Dakhil (23 years old)
8. The elderly martyr Abdelhadi Abdelaziz Ashqar (61 years old)
9. The child martyr Mohammed Farid Shaaban (16 years old)
10. The martyr Jasser Jamil Abdelwahhab Qaneer (23 years old)
The Palestinian Ministry of Health noted that there are 26 people injured with live bullets at the Rafidiyeh Government Hospital, including four seriously injured; 20 injured at the Nablus Specialist Hospital, including one critically injured; 7 injured at An-Najah Hospital from live bullets, including one critically injured; 9 injured with bullet wounds at the Women’s Union Hospital; and 9 more injured with bullet wounds at the Arab Specialist Hospital. These injured Palestinians were only transferred to hospital after evading occupation forces that continue to prevent medical crews from carrying out their work.
In fact, two of the nurses and paramedics called to evacuate the martyrs and save the wounded were Elias al-Ashqar, the son of Abdelhadi Ashqar, and Mohammed Baraa, the son of Adnan Baraa.
The massacre came as one of the notorious assassination raids carried out by occupation forces, as they stormed an area in Nablus’ Old City disguised in a civilian truck, surrounded a home, and battled with resistance fighters for over three hours before the occupation forces targeted the home with an anti-tank missile, causing plumes of smoke to rise from the home of the fighters. This was the home of Mohammed Omar Abu Bakr Junaidi, 23, and Hussam Bassam Aslim, 24, both resistance fighters and leaders in the Lion’s Den resistance brigade of Nablus.
All schools in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip have announced they will close tomorrow for a day of mourning, part of a comprehensive commercial and labour strike. People have taken to the streets throughout Gaza to express their outrage, and the resistance factions have vowed that this crime must not be allowed to pass unpunished.
Imperialist powers like the United States, Canada, Britain, and the European Union countries are directly implicated in this latest crime against the Palestinian people. These countries continue to provide aid and cover to the Israeli occupation, and the U.S. provides over $4 billion each year in military aid — buying the arms and weaponry that go directly to kill Palestinians. Britain was initially responsible for the colonization of Palestine, the support of the Zionist movement and the infamous “Balfour Declaration.” Throughout 100 years of colonialism and 75 years of ongoing Nakba, Zionism and imperialism have been partners in arms. The United States has most recently been working avidly to streamline Palestinian Authority “security cooperation” with the occupation by demanding to set up a special unit to target the resistance in Jenin and Nablus.
This also comes as the Zionist state is witnessing its own internal crisis and dispute over judicial decisions and political power, amid the rise of overt fascists like Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. In order to resolve this crisis and preserve “national unity” among colonialist forces, Zionist forces seek to externalize the crisis and unite by massacring Palestinians.
This attack is also partner to the assault on Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails, and these murderous raids are intended to have multiple outcomes: assassination and arrest, dual weapons of the colonizer to target the resistance. As the prisoners are rising up inside the prisons to demand their liberation, so too do the Palestinian people rise alongside them, confronting massacres, colonialism and ongoing Nakba.
Throughout massacres and mass imprisonment, under colonization, in exile and diaspora, the Palestinian people and their resistance have made clear that the struggle continues for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, just as Nablus is once again affirming today as it mourns and honours its beloved martyrs. This crime must impel all of us to act, to organize, to engage in direct actions, to isolate the occupier, to build our collective resistance and to support the Palestinian people and their revolutionary movement on the front lines of struggle for justice and liberation.
