Three Israelis were injured on 1 April in a car ramming operation in Beit Ummar in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent in occupied Palestine reported.
According to Hebrew media, two of the three injured Israelis are in critical condition. The Palestinian who was responsible for the operation was killed, and has been identified as 23-year-old Mohammed Raed Nayef Baradiyah – a Palestinian Authority (PA) security officer from the town of Surif, northwest of the city of Hebron.
PA security Lt. Mohammad Raed Baradiyah responsible for Al-Khalil op. https://t.co/oDFhSVSZVy
— Joe Catron (@jncatron) April 2, 2023
The three injured were confirmed by the Israeli military to be soldiers.
Baradiyah was killed by Israeli forces after the operation, and medics were deliberately blocked from being able to reach him, WAFA news agency reported.
“Baradiyah was left bleeding helplessly until he died of his wounds,” WAFA said.
The operation is a unique one, given that it is not highly common for those employed by the PA to carry out such acts of resistance.
Most Palestinians have come to view the PA as tool used by the occupation, given their security collaboration with Israel and their role in suppressing resistance. The PA claims its apprehension of resistance fighters across the West Bank aims to prevent their assassination by Israeli forces.
However, rebellious elements, within the PA or associated with it, have carried out acts of resistance before.
Resistance factions such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Lions’ Den faction in the West Bank are said to include many ex-PA members and relatives of PA officials.
Baradiyah’s car-ramming operation came as a response to the killing of 26-year-old Palestinian worshipper, Mohammad al-Osaibi, by Israeli police on 1 April near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied east Jerusalem.
According to eyewitnesses, Osaibi was shot dead while trying to protect a woman who was being assaulted by Israeli forces near the mosque.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) resistance faction, Tariq Ezzeddine, said in a statement: “We congratulate our Palestinian people on the ramming operation in Beit Ummar, which targeted Israeli occupation soldiers.”
“We confirm this operation as the natural and first response to the crime of executing the Martyr Mohammad al-Osaibi and to the incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the PIJ spokesman said.
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