Massive Israeli airstrike kills at least 18 in West Bank; Gaza and Lebanon battered – Day 362
Israeli fighter jets bomb West Bank coffee shop, killing 18 Palestinians
Middle East Eye reports:
Israeli forces killed 18 Palestinians on Thursday after bombing a coffee shop in the occupied West Bank using fighter jets, in the first such attack since the Second Intifada during the early 2000s.
At least one missile reportedly hit a busy cafe in the crowded Tulkarm refugee camp late at night as citizens gathered there. Ambulances and first responders rushed to the scene after the raid.
Video from the site posted on social media showed what appeared to be a corpse suspended in the air and rubble spewed across the street with cries in the background.
A source within the Palestinian security services said this was the deadliest single attack in the occupied West Bank since 2000.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike and said it was a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement by the military.
AL JAZEERA ADDS: The Israeli military said that it killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, an alleged Hamas leader in the occupied West Bank, following a deadly strike in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
IMEMC ADDS: Volunteer paramedic at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Diala Hadaida, said: “We witnessed difficult scenes after the bombing, with the remains of children and elderly people scattered and hanging on power lines, in addition to several Palestinians being trapped under the rubble.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Tulkarem governorate has been subject to serious Israeli military escalation, leading to the death of 152 Palestinians, including twenty-one children and four women, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank, to 741 including more than 160 children, 11 women and two medics.
AL JAZEERA ADDS: Journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh says Israel used a fighter jet in its attack on the occupied West Bank that killed 18 Palestinians, something that had not happened since the second Intifada.
He noted that the Israeli military used an Apache helicopter gunship in its massive raid on the Jenin refugee camp in June 2023, also for the first time in 20 years, suggesting that there is “a wider Israeli plan concerning the West Bank”.
A mother and her two children were among 18 killed in Israeli fighter jet strike on Tulkarem.
The Palestinian health ministry stated that the strike led to a total of 18 people being killed by Israeli strikes.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian young man, on Thursday, after an alleged stabbing attempt at a military roadblock, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Salah Ziad Issa Shawahin, 23, died after Israeli soldiers shot him with live ammunition near Hebron.
Israeli attacks have killed 50 Palestinians in 15 days in the West Bank.
Your Money: Another $1.2 billion tax dollars goes toward Israel – to maintain ships in the Red Sea
Middle East Eye reports:
The US Department of Defense plans to allocate around $1.2 billion for the upkeep of military vessels stationed in the Red Sea, according to recently released budget documents.
This funding will also be used to replenish missile stockpiles, which are essential for protecting Israel as it continues its war on Gaza.
The spending is linked to “costs incurred by the Department of Defense within the US Central Command region in responding to the situation in Israel or to hostile actions in the region as a direct result of the situation in Israel,” one of the documents says.
NOTE: The US continues to provide Israel with tens of millions of dollars a day in military aid (plus billions in emergencysupplies) – while it commits genocide.
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