Vowing revenge, thousands attend funeral of three Palestinians assassinated by Israel

Thousands of Palestinians have marched in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for the funeral of three Palestinians, who were assassinated earlier by the Israeli regime’s forces.

The funeral took place in the northern city of Nablus on Tuesday, hours after an Israeli special forces’ detachment killed the victims and arrested a fourth there.

The incident took place in the city’s al-Makhfeya neighborhood, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

The agency cited its correspondent as saying that the Israeli unit attacked the neighborhood with an unmarked civilian vehicle bearing a Palestinian number plate.

The forces then started firing at another vehicle that was travelling nearby, killing three of its occupants and arresting the fourth.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade identified the victims as the West Bank-based resistance group’s members, naming them as Ibrahim al-Nablusi, Adham Mabrouk, and Muhammed al-Dakhil.

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“With blood and spirit, we’ll redeem you, o martyr!” mourners chanted as they carried the bodies of the Palestinians through the streets.

Videos that emerged from the funeral “recalled the bygone years of the Second Intifada (Uprising)," reports said.

“Revenge! Revenge! Brigades! Qassam!” the Palestinians called out.

According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, the occupying regime has accused the targeted Palestinians of “several shooting attacks” over the past weeks.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority’s health ministry called the Israeli operation "an assassination." The PA’s foreign ministry also described it as a "field execution."

Reacting to the development, Hamas, the resistance movement that is headquartered in the nearby Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, urged all Palestinian groups to stage an “intense reprisal.”

“The [Israeli] enemy’s atrocity entails setting fire to the places that host Zionist servicemen and settlers,” it said in a statement.

The resistance group called for mass participation in the funeral of the three Palestinians.

“Let it be a march that infuriates the enemy, and sends a message that we are the righteous ones, and that resistance is our path to restore the rights that have been taken from us,” it said.

Jasem al-Barghouti, one of Hamas’ officials who is based in the West Bank, meanwhile, said the atrocity proved that resistance was the only option that could protect the Palestinian nation.

He slammed the PA’s “security coordination” with the Israeli regime, saying the coordination only empowered the regime to conduct more such atrocities against the Palestinians.

Israel’s minister for military affairs, Benny Gantz praised the Israeli military and other participating organizations over the criminal operation, which he described as "preventive" and "proactive".

The Israeli regime occupied the West Bank in a heavily-Western-backed war in 1967.

Ever since, it has been dotting the territory with hundreds of illegal settlements, besides imposing the strictest of restrictions on the Palestinians’ freedom there.

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