Hammam Khazem, son of the late Fathi Khazem (Abu Raad) who was killed by Israeli forces this week, was interviewed by Al Jazeera on Saturday about his father’s assassination. Khazem talked about how the Israeli army planned the assassination in advance, and used a neighbor as a human shield when they entered the house, stressing that his father refused to bow to the soldiers before his assassination.
In the interview with Al Jazeera, Hammam described how the Israeli occupation forces smashed the door of the house and demanded his father’s ID, then ordered him to bend over and take off his clothes completely. But Fathi refused, saying: “Who are you for me to bend over to you?” A verbal altercation broke out between Fathi and the soldiers, which ended with the soldiers shooting him inside the house, killing him with 7 bullets that hit several areas of his body in front of his minor son Adam (14 years old).
After the assassination of Fathi Khazem, the Israeli occupation forces took his child, 14-year old Adam, and their neighbor, whom they used as a human shield before entering the bathroom, and stripped them of their clothes completely.
Al Jazeera described it as “a scene that sums up years of persecution and confrontation”, when the Israeli occupation forces assassinated the prominent Palestinian leader Fathi Khazem (Abu Raad) inside his home in the Al-Masarwa neighborhood in the center of the city Jenin on Friday.
Al Jazeera sources revealed the scenes of the last moments, as Israeli soldiers tried to subjugate and humiliate Fathi in front of his wife and 14-year-old child, and at that moment, “Abu Raad” refused to be abused.
After assassinating him, the Israeli forces confiscated his body and transported him via a military vehicle to an unknown destination.
Abu Raad, 56 years old, became well-known in Palestine after the killing of his son Raad in April 2022.
At the time, Raad was able to carry out an operation against the occupation on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, which resulted in the killing of 3 Israelis and the wounding of at least 16 others.
Abu Raad, a retired colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces, appeared more composed in bidding farewell to his other son, Abdul Rahman, who was killed while confronting the Israeli occupation that stormed the Jenin camp in late September 2022.
Following the assassination of Abu Raad on Friday, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) issued a statement about the assassination of Fathi Khazem, describing him as a prominent national figure. The movement said the killing of Khazem, following the killing of two of his sons, who died as martyrs, while his daughter Shaima is languishing in the occupation’s prisons, embodies the extent of the sacrifices made by the Palestinian people in confronting the occupation and its policies.
Hamas stressed that the raids, assassinations and arrests carried out by the occupation against the Palestinians will not undermine the will of the Palestinian people or deter them from continuing their struggle and adhering to their national rights, stressing that these policies will not succeed in breaking their steadfastness or weakening their will.
The movement called on the Palestinian people, particularly in the West Bank, to continue to adhere to the option of resistance and escalate confrontation with the occupation forces and settlers, stressing that the occupation’s ongoing crimes require greater unity and steadfastness in defending the land and holy sites.
