By SCM International Desk I Friday, August 21, 2026
JENIN, West Bank — A 58-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces inside his home in the northern West Bank city of Jenin early Friday morning, raising tensions in a region already destabilized by months of intensifying military operations and widespread violence.
The man, identified as Fathi Zidan Khazem, a retired colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces, died after Israeli special forces stormed his residence during an overnight raid.
Eyewitnesses and Palestinian officials reported that soldiers entered the property under heavy gunfire, leaving bloodstains across the interior stairs and living quarters, before shooting Khazem multiple times and seizing his body upon their withdrawal.
Palestinian rights advocates and local witnesses described the incident as an extrajudicial execution of an unarmed civilian inside his own home.
Local medical crews from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that Israeli troops blocked ambulances from reaching the scene to provide critical medical assistance while Khazem lay mortally wounded.
The Israeli military offered a sharply contrasting account of the event. In an official statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade were conducting an arrest operation in central Jenin when an assailant armed with a knife attempted to stab a soldier.
According to the IDF, troops opened fire to “neutralize” the threat. The military reported no casualties among its personnel.
Khazem was a prominent figure in the Jenin area, largely due to his family’s high-profile involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He was the father of two sons, Raad and Abdelrahman Khazem, both of whom were previously killed by Israeli forces.
Raad Khazem carried out a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv in April 2022 that left three Israelis dead before he was killed following an hours-long manhunt. Five months later, in September 2022, Abdelrahman Khazem was killed alongside several other Palestinians during an Israeli military assault on the Jenin refugee camp.
The killing of Fathi Khazem comes amid a dramatic escalation of violence across the occupied West Bank. Since late 2023, Israeli security forces have conducted near-daily military incursions into northern West Bank cities—particularly Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarem—targeting militant networks, infrastructure, and individuals suspected of planning attacks.
These military operations have frequently resulted in significant civilian casualties, extensive property destruction, and the detention or death of high-profile local figures. Concurrently, Palestinian militant groups have engaged in frequent clashes with advancing armored columns and carried out sporadic attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The situation in the West Bank has been further aggravated by a surge in confrontations involving Israeli settlers, expand structural outposts, and strict military checkpoints that restrict the movement of Palestinians between major population centers.
Human rights organizations have routinely raised concerns regarding the use of lethal force during IDF residential raids, the withholding of Palestinian bodies by Israeli authorities, and the denial of access for emergency medical personnel—tactics that Palestinian leaders argue violate international humanitarian law.
With the death of Fathi Khazem, local leaders in Jenin warn that anger over the family’s repeated losses could trigger renewed unrest in a territory already on the brink.
