Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed three Palestinian resistance fighters affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, near Yatta, south of Al-Khalil, on Tuesday night.
Hebrew sources said that the soldiers fired at a car with Israeli plates and killed two “wanted” Palestinians who were planning a commando operation in the green line.
The Israeli TV channel 10 claimed that the soldiers found guns and explosive devices inside the car, which was blasted later on.
A third resistance fighter managed to escape the scene and retreat to his home but IOF soldiers chased and killed him.
Coordinator of popular committees against the wall and settlement in Yatta Ratib Jabour identified the martyrs as Mahmoud Al-Najjar and Mousa Fanasha from Yatta, and Mohammed Nayrukh, a liberated prisoner, from Al-Khalil city. He said that all three were affiliated with Hamas and were wanted for the PA security apparatuses.
Eyewitnesses at the scene of the incident, at the main entrance to Yatta town, said that the soldiers blocked arrival of ambulance cars to the scene.
They said that the soldiers set up dozens of roadblocks at the entrances to Al-Khalil industrial area, Fawar refugee camp, and the villages of Daheriya, Yatta, and Dura.
The witnesses pointed out that the soldiers closed the main entrance to Yatta immediately after the incident and blocked traffic in and out of the town and searched homes in Abu Rajab suburb.
Local sources said that IOF reinforcements were summoned to the villages east of Yatta and a curfew was clamped on a number of them.
They said that the soldiers arrested Khalil Abu Aram and his son after blasting their way into their home in Yatta after claiming that a resistance fighter was entrenched inside it.
