Yerusalem, The Indonesia Post – Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian man who the Israeli military said was armed with a knife and an explosive device on Friday near a town in the north of the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military separately said its troops stormed a town near the Palestinian city of Ramallah overnight and opened fire on a crowd throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, hitting a person, without specifying whether the person was injured or killed.
Tensions in the West Bank have increased in recent months, with almost daily military raids and increased violence by settlers across the West Bank amid a barrage of attacks by Palestinians.
Palestinian officials confirmed that a 21-year-old man was killed by Israeli settlers near the town of Qalqilya on Friday, but gave no information on the number killed in the Ni’lin attack.
The family of the man who was killed told Reuters he was religious but had no connection to membership of any Palestinian militant group. They say his body is still being held by the military.
On Thursday, a Hamas member opened fire in Tel Aviv, wounding three people and one of them critically, before being killed by police and bystanders.
The Islamic militant group said the attack was in retaliation for Israel’s killing of three Palestinian men in the West Bank earlier in the day.
During an operation in the town of Ni’lin on Friday, the Israeli military said it arrested two families of Hamas members and mapped their homes for demolition.
Israel says such demolitions are to deter potential attacks by Palestinians. Palestinians and rights groups have denounced the policy as collective punishment.
Over the past year, Israeli forces have made thousands of arrests in the West Bank and killed more than 200 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians. More than 40 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks by Palestinians over the same period.
Palestinians are seeking to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel annexed in the 1967 Middle East war. The expansion of Jewish settlements and stalemate political developments have clouded their hopes of establishing a state. (mhn/bbs)
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