Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Tamar Almassri
By George Swarei
The Embassy of the state of Palestine in Harare has confirmed the killing of three Palestinians in an Israeli army raid in a West Bank refugee camp early on Monday, while America has sharply condemned Israel’s latest act of settlement expansion.
According to the Palestinian Embassy, the three men were killed during a raid in Balata, a refugee camp near the city of Nablus. Several people were wounded, including one who was in critical condition.
The State of Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tamar Almassri condemned the killings.
“This crime is a real massacre and a continuation of the all-out war Israel is waging against the Palestinian people that reflects the bloody approach of the extremist occupation government, which practices the most aggressive policies of terrorism and violence against our people,” he said.
The Ambassador added that these Israeli crimes will not deter the Palestinian people from continuing their national struggle until they win their legitimate rights and establish their independent sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The Israeli army later confirmed that its soldiers had raided Balata; it said its troops came under fire and killed three Palestinians. The statement mentioned that Israel has stepped up raids in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks and said Monday’s operations netted weapons and an explosives manufacturing operation in a home, which it detonated.
On the other hand, the Biden administration issued a strongly worded statement criticizing Israel for moving to re-establish settlers at the formerly evacuated outpost of Homesh in northern West Bank.
In March 2023, the Israeli government repealed a 2005 act that dismantled four West Bank settlements. Over the weekend, the top Israeli army general in the West Bank signed an order attaching Homesh to a local settler regional council — a move paving the way for reconstruction of the outpost.
Matthew Miller State Department spokesman said the U.S. was “deeply troubled” by the announcement, and noted that Israel itself had determined the settlement was built illegally on private Palestinian land.
Miller also expressed Washington’s concerns about ultranationalist National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir’s visit Sunday to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
The contested site is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. “This holy space should not be used for political purposes, and we call on all parties to respect its sanctity,” Miller said in the statement.
Similarly, the Palestinian Ambassador strongly condemned the Israeli government continuous imprisonment of political prisoner and freedom fighter 61-year-old Walid Daqqa whose health has deteriorated after he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone marrow cancer that disrupts the body’s normal production of blood cells.
According to the Ambassador Daqqa is one of the most prominent and long-time Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
