Thousands of Palestinians chanted shouts of revenge on Tuesday afternoon at the funeral of three men Israel said were allegedly responsible for recent shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians and who were killed earlier in the day in a shootout with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Nablus. “The blood of martyrs will not be wasted, and the response will come, God willing, and blood will be met with blood,” Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the military wing of the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which the dead men belonged to, said in a statement. “With blood and spirit, we’ll redeem you, o martyr!” shouted some at the funerals.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service said in a statement that the men, identified by the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry as Adham Mabrouk, Mohammed al-Dakhil and Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, were killed in a joint operation of the Shin Bet, the Israel National Counter-Terrorism Unit and the Israel Defense Forces. No Israeli forces were injured in the operation. A fourth man was arrested in the operation, according to reports. The terrorists were shot as they prepared to shoot Israeli forces, according to reports.
“Our forces have proven today, once again, that there is no immunity for terrorists. Whoever harms us – will be harmed,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.
A day of mourning has been declared for Wednesday in Nablus. The PA government called for an international investigation into the killings and said that the men had been “executed.”