Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian militant in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the latest in a surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 40-year-old man, identified as Hamdi Shaker Abdullah Abu Dayyah, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Halhul, north of the West Bank city of Hebron.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority, claimed the man was a fighter and said he had also been a police officer.
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The Israeli army said in a statement that troops in the area came under fire and returned fire. He added that Israeli forces were investigating reports that the slain Palestinian was linked to an earlier shooting attack on an Israeli bus.
Tensions have soared in the West Bank, where the Israeli army has been carrying out arrest raids almost every night since last spring, following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 19 people. Another 10 Israelis were killed in a second series of attacks last year.
Israeli security forces survey the scene of a shooting in the West Bank town of Halhul, on January 17, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces in Halhul, north of the town. West Bank of Hebron.
(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israel says the raids are aimed at dismantling militant networks and thwarting future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment to Israel’s 55-year indefinite occupation of the lands they seek for their future state.
2 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN SEPARATE VIOLENT CLASHES WITH ISRAELIS ON WEST BANK
On Monday, Israeli security forces shot dead a 14-year-old Palestinian during a morning raid in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli army said the forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded with Molotov cocktails and stones. He said the soldiers responded with live fire.
Violence and unrest have raged for months in the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Palestinians want for their long-awaited state. About half a million Israelis now live in some 130 settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians and much of the international community see the settlements as an obstacle to peace.
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Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.
Israel says most of the dead were militants. But stone-throwing Palestinians, youth protesting the incursions and others not taking part in the clashes have also been killed.
