[1][2][3][4] Separate investigations by the New York Times and the Washington Post showed Israeli forces targeting and shooting at civilians.
Some hours later, they identified two of the youths they were hunting, Husam Bassam Isleem (24) and Muhammad Omar “Juneidi” Abu Bakr (23), as they walked into the Habalah Quarter of the town.
Around 20 minutes later, the undercover squad called for reinforcements, whereupon an estimated 50 military vehicles, with around 150 soldiers, launched a large-scale foray into the city while blocking off all entries and exits.
[1] Three elderly men, Adnan Sabe Bara (72); Abdelhadi Abed Aziz Al-Ashqar (61), and Anan Shawkat Anna (66), also died, the last of side-effects of tear gas intoxication the day after.
[10] The Biden administration joined a growing number of governments condemning what the IDF said was a counter-terrorism operation and the Palestinian Authority again called on the United Nations Security Council to act.
[13] Many countries issued statements condemning the incursion and others expressing concern about the violence, including Algeria,[14] Bahrain,[15] Egypt,[16] Germany,[17] Iran,[18] Lebanon,[19] Kuwait,[20] Oman,[21] Qatar,[22] Saudi Arabia,[23] and Turkey,[24] the UAE,[25] and Yemen.
[6] On 10 March 2023, the Washington Post published a visual reconstruction that showed that "while responding to what they claimed was a gunman, Israeli forces fired at least 14 times from inside their armored vehicle as it moved down a street and then came to a halt next to a short wall behind which [the] civilians huddled.