Palestinians mourn the 32nd Palestinian killed by Israel in Jenin since start of 2022

Palestinians mourn the 32nd Palestinian killed by Israel in Jenin since start of 2022
"Mohammad was a motorbike food deliverer who took care of his parents", Amr Manasra, a local journalist in Jenin who knew Sabaaneh told The New Arab. "He was a simple person from a simple family", he added.
4 min read
West Bank
06 September, 2022
Mohammad Sabaaneh, 27 worked as motorbike food deliverer to help his parents. [Getty]

Hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin mourned 27-year-old Mohammad Sabbaneh, the second victim killed by Israeli forces in less than 24 hours and the 32nd since the beginning of the year. 

On Monday, Israeli forces killed 19-year-old Taher Zakarneh in a military raid on the town of Qabatiya, west of Jenin city.

Sabaaneh was killed during an Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the early hours of Tuesday. The raid also wounded 20 Palestinians, one of whom is in a critical state, and the detonation of a house.

"Mohammad was a motorbike food deliverer to help his parents", Amr Manasra, a local journalist in Jenin who knew Sabaaneh, told The New Arab. "He was a simple person from a simple family", he added.

"Mohammad wasn't taking part in the confrontations but was live-streaming the events on his Tik-Tok account when he received an Israeli bullet that went through his chest and out of his back", detailed Manasra. "When he reached the hospital, he had already died."

"The atmosphere in Jenin is very tense. People express anger everywhere, especially that Sabaaneh is the second killed in the region since yesterday and the 32nd since the beginning of the year", Manasra added.

On Tuesday noon, hundreds of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp took part in Sabaaneh's funeral, marching with his body from the Khalil Suleiman public hospital in Jenin city, through the camp's alleys to the mosque, and then to the cemetery.

Although The New Arab could not reach Sabaaneh's family, his father told Palestinian journalists in front of the Jenin hospital that "Mohammad had the aspiration of one day marrying and forming a family, and starting his own business."

Monday's raid was the largest in months into the Jenin refugee camp. Local Fatah secretary in the camp, Atta Abu Rmeileh, told The New Arab that "Israeli forces raided the camp from three sides, with more than 100 armoured vehicles, shortly after midnight."

"They headed to the house of Raad Khazem, forced the residents of the entire building out and took it over. Then [they] placed snipers on rooftops who opened fire at anyone who approached the house as they were wiring it for detonation," Abu Rmeileh said.

"Meanwhile, more Israeli forces pushed deeper into the camp but were confronted by fierce resistance from gunmen and eventually withdrew," he added.

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The destroyed house was home to 29-year-old Raad Khazem and his family. Khazem was killed in April by Israeli police in Yafa, hours after he had opened fire at Israelis in the busy Dizengoff street in Tel Aviv, killing two Israelis and wounding 14.

Khazem's father became wanted by the Israeli forces after giving a speech to a small crowd gathered in front of his house shortly after his son's killing.

Later in April, Khazem's brother survived an ambush by Israeli forces while travelling in a car with his mother. A Palestinian teenager worker standing aside was killed in the attack by an Israeli stray bullet. Eventually, Khazem's brother was arrested by Israeli forces in late May.

Khazem's house is the sixth Palestinian home to be demolished by Israeli forces in Jenin since the beginning of 2022 on punitive grounds.

Israeli forces have killed more than 140 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year.