Al-Jazeera / March 3, 2023
Palestinians say Muhammad Nidal Salim was killed after Israeli forces entered the occupied West Bank town of Azzoun.
Israeli forces have shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.
Ahmad Enaya, the mayor of the West Bank town of Azzoun, said an Israeli military vehicle drove into town late on Thursday and when teens hurled rocks at the car, soldiers responded with live fire.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Muhammad Nidal Salim was “killed by bullets in the back fired at him by the occupation [Israeli] soldiers”.
Two others were wounded, including a child who is in critical condition, the ministry added, without giving their ages.
The Israeli military said in a statement that soldiers shot at suspects who had hurled explosives at forces while they were conducting a search in the area for people who launched fireworks at Israeli vehicles passing near Azzoun.
It said it was aware of reports of people being wounded but did not confirm any Palestinian deaths.
Violence in the West Bank has been spiralling, with Israel conducting near-daily raids over the last year, killing hundreds of Palestinians.
Late on Sunday, the Palestinian town of Huwara came under attack from Jewish settlers, hours after two settlers were shot dead as they drove through the northern West Bank town.
Hundreds of settlers set homes and cars ablaze and hurled stones in Huwara overnight, and a Palestinian man was killed in the nearby village of Zaatara.
The settler rampage was described by Palestinians, and an Israeli general, as a “pogrom”, with apparent support from some leading Israeli politicians.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Huwara should be “wiped out”, leading to a rebuke from the United States.
On Monday, gunmen shot dead an Israeli-American motorist, and on Wednesday Israeli forces searching for suspects in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho killed a Palestinian man.
Israeli forces carried out three large-scale raids in Palestinian cities since Israel’s new government took office at the end of last year, including one in Nablus on February 22 that led to the largest Palestinian death toll in a single Israeli military operation since 2005.
New armed Palestinian groups have also emerged, and there has been a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Fears of escalation before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover festival have prompted the United States, Jordan and Egypt to appeal for calm.
At least 66 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed since the start of 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said. Thirteen Israelis and a Ukrainian tourist died in Palestinian attacks in the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
On Friday, a top US Army officer, General Mark Milley, arrived in Israel to discuss regional security issues with his Israeli counterparts, his spokesperson said on Friday.
“They will address the many challenges and opportunities facing Israel and the Middle East region,” Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement, without offering further details on Milley’s agenda.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Palestinian teen shot dead in the West Bank
MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / March 3, 2023
15-year-old Muhammad Nidal Salim was shot dead by Israeli security services east of the city of Qalqilya.
A 15-year-old Palestinian was killed and two others wounded during an Israeli raid in the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday.
Muhammad Nidal Salim was shot dead by Israeli security services in the town of Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya.
Two others were wounded, one seriously after being struck in the chest, and the other received minor injuries to the hand.
The ministry said Salim was “killed by bullets in the back fired at him by the occupation [Israeli] soldiers” late on Thursday evening.
In a statement, the Israeli army said “several suspects hurled Molotov cocktails at the soldiers” and that “the soldiers responded with live ammunition”.
The shooting comes as tensions in the West Bank are at an all-time high.
On Sunday at least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were wounded in settler attacks on Huwwara town and other West Bank towns and villages in the Nablus area.
Hundreds of Jewish settlers, flanked by soldiers, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus following a shooting that killed two Israelis in Huwwara town earlier in the day.
At least 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis this year, at a rate of more than one fatality per day. Meanwhile, 13 Israelis and one police officer have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.
This follows a steep increase in violence in 2022 when at least 167 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest death toll in those territories in a single year since the Second Intifada. Palestinian attacks killed 30 Israelis last year.
