Date: October 2nd, 2024 5:03 AM
Author: Orange Genital Piercing Pit
A laborer from Gaza living in the West Bank is the first reported fatality of the Iranian attack.
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A crowd stands outside shops and around a large projectile in open space.
People gathered around a fallen projectile that had been moved to the center of a square in the Palestinian village of Dura in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel.Credit...Hazem Bader/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sameh al-Asali was one of hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip sheltering in the city of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, far from the war between Israel and Hamas back home.
On Tuesday, a fragment of an Iranian missile fell on him, making him the only person known to be killed in the attack targeting Israel, a victim of the escalating regional conflict between Israel and Iran and its proxies.
Mr. al-Asali’s death highlighted the vulnerability of Palestinians in the West Bank to Iran’s missile barrages. Unlike those in Israel, Palestinians in the West Bank don’t have an air-raid siren system to warn them of incoming attacks.
Mr. al-Asali, 37, was walking through a Palestinian Authority training base that had been converted into a shelter for Palestinian laborers from Gaza when a large fragment of a missile slammed into him, according to security camera footage reviewed by The New York Times. It appeared the fragment had either fallen off the missile or had plummeted after being interdicted by an Israeli interceptor.
Mr. al-Asali’s father, Khader al-Asali, said in a phone interview that he had been shocked to discover his son’s lifeless body. “He was unlucky,” he said.
Roughly 600 Palestinians from Gaza, who were working in Israel before the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, were seeking refuge in the base, said Hussein Hamayel, the governor of Jericho.
Mr. al-Asali, 64, said he and his son were construction workers in northern Israel before Oct. 7. He said his wife, six daughters and other son remained back home in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.
Iran fired about 180 missiles toward Israel on Tuesday evening, the Israeli military said. Many were intercepted by Israel’s air-defense systems, but at least some missiles or missile fragments fell in Israel and the West Bank.
In the northern village of Azzun, in the West Bank, a missile fell between homes but it didn’t appear to explode, according to residents and the Palestinian police.
Fares al-Hawari, a resident of Azzun, said he didn’t hear a blast. “It sounded like something heavy fell out of the sky, but there was no boom,” Mr. al-Hawari, 27, said by phone, adding that he saw gases rising from the missile when he checked it out.
Col. Louay Arzeikat, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s police, said Israel had taken several hours to provide permission to a bomb squad to travel to Azzun to examine and defuse the missile.
“This kind of delay can lead to the death of citizens,” Colonel Arzeikat said.
COGAT, the Israeli government body responsible for liaising with the Palestinian Authority, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
For years, Palestinian officials have criticized Israel’s slow response to requests for permission to send security forces from one part of the West Bank to another.
The Iranian missile attack, Mr. al-Asali said, didn’t serve Palestinian interests.
“May God hold them accountable,” he said. “We don’t want missiles. We don’t want war.” He added: “We want peace. God willing, this war will end.”
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5604620&forum_id=2#48153915)