Al-Jazeera / May 10, 2023
The latest killings come a day after 15 Palestinians, including four children, were killed by Israeli missile attacks on Gaza.
Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, a day after Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles that killed 15 people in separate attacks over several hours.
The health ministry identified the slain men as Ahmad Jamal Assaf, 19, and Warani Walid Qatanat, 24, who were shot by Israeli soldiers in Qabatiya town, south of Jenin, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday.
Witnesses reported that a large force of Israeli soldiers “raided the town and broke into several homes in the western neighbourhood, searched them and ransacked them”, WAFA reported.
“During the assault, soldiers opened fire at a car killing two and wounding a third,” the news agency said.
Social media users in the town also reported that Israeli forces were raiding homes and stopping cars on the streets.
In a statement, the Israeli military claimed the deceased had fired on soldiers from a vehicle and were killed by return fire. One M-16 assault rifle and a handgun were found at the scene, it said.
Two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli air attack on a car in the southern Gaza Strip, according to local ambulance paramedics and the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Earlier in the day, 40 Israeli military aircraft, including drones, carried out a series of early morning missile attacks on Gaza, killing at least 13 people, including three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement as well as their wives, several children, and other civilians.
About 20 people were also injured, some in critical condition, in the Israeli air attacks that left residential buildings ablaze in central Gaza City and reduced others to rubble.
At least 123 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces so far this year, according to Palestinian figures. Nineteen Israelis have also been killed in separate attacks during the same period.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank raid
MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / May 10, 2023
Ahmed Assaf and Rani Qatanat were killed in a raid on Qabatiya town, near the city of Jenin.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in a dawn raid on the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the two men as Ahmed Jamal Tawfiq Assaf, a 19-year-old from Qabatiya, and Rani Walid Qatanat, a 24-year-old resident of Jenin refugee camp.
Israeli forces sprayed a vehicle with bullets, killing Assad and Qatanat, and wounding three others, according to local reports.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “assailants opened fire at IDF soldiers from a vehicle” and the soldiers “responded with live fire”.
Eyewitnesses said a large army force raided the town, near the northern city of Jenin, under a heavy presence of drones, and closed down the town’s main streets.
Israeli forces ordered cars not to move through loudspeakers and stormed a number of Palestinian homes, and surrounded others.
Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard around the town as fighting then broke out between Israeli forces and armed residents, eyewitnesses said.
The incident brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far this year to 108. A total of 19 Israelis and one Ukrainian have been killed by Palestinians over the same period.
Wednesday’s raid comes a day after a series of Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed three Islamic Jihad commanders and 12 civilians, including four children, leaving the two sides braced for a flare-up.
