Since the start of the year, Israel killed at least 160 Palestinians.
Qatar has condemned a “provocative” large-scale Israeli raid targeting a Jenin refugee camp on Monday, where occupation forces killed at least five Palestinians including a 15-year old.
“Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the aggression of the Israeli occupation on the city of Jenin and its camp, resulting in several deaths and injuries,” the Gulf state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statement said Qatar considers the latest attack “a new episode in the chain of horrific occupation crimes against the defenceless Palestinian people, especially women and children.”
The ministry warned of “the fading chances of peace and the expansion of the cycle of violence due to the provocative Israeli escalation in the Occupied Palestinian territories.”
“The ministry also stresses the need for the international community to act urgently to provide the necessary protection to the Palestinian people, and to oblige Israel to stop its flagrant violations of international law and respect resolutions of international legitimacy,” the statement read.
Qatar also renewed its position on the Palestinian cause and the establishment of an independent state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The statement on Monday came after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a massive raid on Jenin, in which around 120 military vehicles stormed the Palestinian city as Israeli snipers took aim from rooftops.
Footage shared online also showed Israeli attack helicopters on the scene.
Five Palestinians were killed and more than 91 others were wounded in the raid, of which at least 23 are in a critical condition, Palestine’s news agency (Wafa) reported.
The Palestinians killed were aged between 15 and 29, with the youngest victim named as Ahmad Youssef Saqr.
Wafa added that “heavily-armed soldiers” fired live ammunition and deliberately targeted journalists as they covered the raid in what quickly became reminiscent of the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead while reporting on a similar operation in the same area.
IOF soldiers also broke into the house of Palestinian Mus‘ab Al-Barmaki “and used the family members as human shields, before detaining two Palestinians”, Wafa added.
‘Open war against Palestinians’
Commenting on the latest raid, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh slammed Israel’s “continuous massacres” and called on the United States, Israel’s main ally, to intervene to halt its crimes against Palestinians.
“The international silence is what encourages the occupation government to continue its crimes and wage an all-out war against our Palestinian people, their land and their sanctities,” he said.
The Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein Al-Sheikh added that Israel is “waging an open war on Palestinians”.
“A fierce and open war is being waged against the Palestinian people politically, security and economically by the occupation forces,” he said, saying Palestine is facing “a comprehensive battle on all fronts”.
Since last year, Israel has intensified its violence on the West Bank and has launched almost daily attacks targeting Palestinian resistance groups.
In 2022 alone, the IOF killed more than 170 Palestinians, making it the deadliest year within the targeted areas since 2006. Separately, Israel killed 49 Palestinians, including 17 children, in Gaza during a three-day bombardment last year.
With an absence of international action, this year’s figure is feared to be much higher.
At least 160 Palestinians, including 26 children, have been killed since the start of 2023. Out of the total, 36 Palestinians were killed in the besieged Gaza Strip during a four-day Israeli offensive in May.
