A Palestinian resistance group, based in the occupied West Bank, has announced launching an “expanded operation” against the Israeli regime following the latter’s assassination of the group’s fighters.
The Cradle online news magazine reported the development, citing a Tuesday statement by the group in question, which it identified as the Tulkarm Brigade.
An umbrella organization of resistance fighters with different political affiliations, the brigade hails from the city of Tulkarm in northwestern West Bank.
“We announce the start of an expanded operation for all brigades and groups from now until further notice,” the statement said.
The announcement came a day after Israeli forces assassinated three Palestinian young men in a violent raid on a Tulkarm suburb.
The official Palestinian WAFA news agency identified the victims as 22-year-old Youssef Ali al-Khouli, 23-year-old Ahed Salman Musa, and 24-year-old Tariq Amjad Shaheen.
Describing the raid, WAFA said the regime’s special forces attacked the Aktaba suburb of Tulkarm, while accompanied by a high number of Israeli troops.
The forces “fired heavily at a vehicle parked in the neighborhood, before surrounding a house there and assassinating the three young men inside,” the report said.
It added that the body of one of the martyrs was run over by an Israeli military vehicle before the regime’s soldiers withdrew from the area.
After targeting the victims, the invading Israeli forces prevented the Red Crescent staff from reaching the area by pointing their guns at the organization’s vehicles.
Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinian resistance fighters engaged in intense clashes with Israeli troops in Tulkarm as part of the retaliatory operation that has been announced by Tulkarm Brigade.
The clashes erupted near the Nour Shams and Tulkarm refugee camps in the city when the Israeli army stormed the city at midnight on Monday following the triple assassinations.
During the confrontation, resistance fighters prevented Israeli forces from fully entering either camp.
“[Our] strikes against the enemy forces continue,” Tulkarm Brigade added through the Tuesday statement.
The occupying regime has escalated its violent raids across the West Bank since October 7 when it started a brutal military onslaught against the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 340 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied territory as a result of the escalation.
On the other hand, the regime’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza has so far killed around 23,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while leaving nearly 59,000 others injured.
