Israel forces kill suspected resistance attacker in West Bank

Israeli forces shot dead Ahmed Nasser Jarrar earlier this morning, the suspected perpetrator of a resistance attack that left a settler leader dead at the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad last month, Haaretz have reported.

Jarrar, known as the “Ghost of Jenin” for his evasion of Israeli forces for the past month, was killed in the West Bank village of Yamun. According to the Israeli military, security forces surrounded the house in the village in which Jarrar was occupying and launched a missile at the building. Combat engineering troops then started demolishing the house with a bulldozer to pressure him to leave the structure. He was shot when he emerged.

In the aftermath of his death, several Palestinians were arrested for allegedly helping him hide in the village. Two Palestinians were injured after being shot with rubber coated metal bullets in clashes with Israeli soldiers according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad hailing Jarrar a martyr, while the Ahrar movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised him for evading capture for so long, highlighting that whilst Israel militarily subdues such fighters, their motivation to resist the occupation remained.

Jarrar is the third person to have been killed in the aftermath of the settlement attack; last month security forces raided a house and killed Jarrar’s cousin, Ismail Muhammed Jarrar. Israeli forces asserted that he had tried to shoot occupying soldiers; his family denied the allegations.

Read: Israeli soldiers call for ‘revenge unit’ against Palestinians

On Saturday, Israeli forces also raided Burqin village – home to the Jarrar family – three times in less than 24 hours. During one of the raids, accompanied by bulldozers and a drone, Israeli soldiers surrounded homes and urged Ahmad to “surrender”. They further demolished two agricultural sheds in a clearly punitive measure and during confrontations with local residents, killed 19-year-old Ahmad Samir Obaid with a shot to the head.

The Israeli government has also legalised the 50-family settler outpost of Havat Gilad in which Rabbi Meir Goldmintz lived, in retribution for the attack.

“We must make clear that every murder will be met with immediate [settlement] construction. Regulating [the status of] Havat Gilad and building there is the most painful price Israel can exact to deter terrorists from undertaking the next attack,” Education Minister Naftali Bennett said when advocating for the decision.

Rabbi Goldmintz had also been a strong advocate for settlement construction on private Palestinian land.

In article for pro-settler news site Arutz7 last year, Goldmintz wrote: “If an Arab is willing to sell [land], we will agree to buy the land, but when it is impossible to buy, the original law repeats that the land is ours and we should take it out of our eternal right to the Land of Israel.”

All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law and have been recognised as a major impediment to peace in the region by the UN and the international community.

Read: Ahead of Havat Gilad ‘legalisation’, Israel settlers urge approval for 24 outposts