Israeli occupation forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Tuesday morning. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths, noting that the IOF are withholding the bodies of the two martyrs.

According to local sources who spoke to the WAFA news agency, undercover Israeli special forces from the Mista'arvim unit pursued the young men in the Bahrhem area and opened fire with live ammunition, seriously wounding two of them and taking them into custody. They later succumbed to their wounds.

Speaking on the incident on Tuesday, Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi stated that the practice of field executions carried out by Israeli occupation forces is part of an ongoing policy of systematic assassinations and brutal aggression targeting the Palestinian people.

Mardawi added that these escalating atrocities are part of a broader comprehensive aggression in the West Bank and a continuity of the war of annihilation in Gaza. He accused Israeli forces of persistently raiding cities, carrying out daily arrests, and storming homes to terrorize civilians. He characterized this as a recurrent cycle of violence intended to break the will of the Palestinian people.

'Israel' carries out collective punishment against Palestinians

Previously, on September 15, Israeli occupation forces escalated their operations throughout the occupied West Bank, storming the library of the al-Aqsa Mosque, carrying on with demolitions in the southern hills of al-Khalil, and extending raids and armed confrontations into several cities.

Israeli authorities issued demolition notices for five homes in Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil, in what local residents describe as a policy of collective punishment aimed at Palestinian communities in the area.

Meanwhile, in Jenin, Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Bartaa, southwest of the governorate, arresting several workers after searching homes and shops, in operations which the municipality stated paralyzed residents' lives and amounted to collective punishment.

Since Thursday, Tulkarm has witnessed an unprecedented wave of arrests, with Israeli occupation forces detaining more than 1,500 people, including pedestrians, shop owners, and vehicle drivers, marking one of the biggest arrest operations that swept across the city in recent months. All the detainees were later released.