MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / July 26, 2023
Mohammad Abdel-Hakim Nada, 23, was shot in the chest, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a military raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
Mohammad Abdel-Hakim Nada, 23, was shot in the chest by Israeli gunfire and later died in hospital, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli troops raided Al-Ain refugee camp in Nablus in the late morning to arrest some Palestinians, local media said.
Armed clashes erupted after an undercover unit of Israeli soldiers was discovered in the camp.
It was not immediately clear if Nada died in clashes or as a bystander.
During the raid, Israeli forces surrounded a house and called on one of its residents to surrender himself. The man inside was later arrested, according to Palestinian reports.
The Israeli military confirmed it was operating in the camp but did not give further details.
Nada’s death comes a day after the Israeli army killed three Palestinians in Nablus, claiming they opened fire on soldiers.
At least 201 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, including 34 children – a rate of nearly one fatality per day.
A total of 164 people have died in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making 2023 one of the bloodiest years in the occupied Palestinian territories. Another 36 people were killed in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis in the same period, including six children.
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Palestinian teen killed by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank
Al-Jazeera / July 26, 2023
The shooting occurred after Israeli forces raided a neighbourhood in the city Qalqiliya overnight, resulting in clashes.
Israeli forces have killed a 14-year-old Palestinian teen in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry, marking the latest death amid a surge of violence in the region.
The shooting, which was announced early on Thursday, occurred in the city of Qalqiliya, as Israeli forces reportedly stormed a local neighbourhood overnight, resulting in clashes. Residents told the Reuters news agency that neighbourhood youth threw rocks at the soldiers, who responded with gunfire.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA identified the victim as teenager Faris Abu Samra. Local news reports indicated he had been shot in the head.
The bloodshed happened only hours after another Palestinian man was killed in a West Bank raid further south, in the Al-Ain refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus.
Israeli troops said they entered the camp to arrest a “suspected militant”, but as soldiers encircled a house in the refugee camp, a gunfight ensued, resulting in Mohammed Abd al-Hakim Nada being shot in the chest. He later died from his injuries.
Officials have warned that 2023 is on track to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations began keeping track of fatalities in 2005.
In a recent Protection of Civilians report, the UN tallied 112 Palestinians killed in the West Bank between January and May 29 – more than double the number of deaths catalogued over the same period in 2022.
The report also noted that Israeli forces had also injured an estimated 409 Palestinians, including 41 children.
Previously, 2022 had been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with 150 people killed, of which 33 were minors. It was the sixth consecutive annual increase in the West Bank death toll and coincided with the start of near-daily raids on the area.
Armed Palestinian groups have responded with shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in recent months, contributing to the violence.
The rising number of fatalities last year prompted UN experts to condemn the treatment of Palestinians, including attacks on their homes and destruction of their property.
“We remind Israel that, pending the dismantlement of its unlawful occupation, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory must be treated as protected persons, not enemies or terrorists,” the UN experts said in a press release.
Qalqiliya, where the teen was shot on Thursday, is located in the northwest part of the West Bank and surrounded by Israel’s separation wall, a structure the UN deems illegal.
The city has previously been the site of clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians. In October, for instance, another 14-year-old was shot dead near the separation barrier when Israeli forces responded to a Molotov cocktail with live fire.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Palestinian man killed by Israeli troops during arrest raid in West Bank
AP / July 26, 2023
NABLUS, West Bank – A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the latest bloodshed in one of the most violent stretches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years.
Israeli forces entered Al-Ein refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus and arrested a suspected militant after surrounding his house, the army said. Palestinian officials said a 23-year-old man was killed when fighting erupted between Palestinian militants and Israeli security forces.
The Israeli army said Palestinians opened fire and threw stones and paint at soldiers, who responded with live fire.
Another two Palestinians were wounded by bullet shrapnel, including a female motorist caught in the crossfire, medics from the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man killed as Mohammed Nada and said he was shot in the chest.
Wednesday’s incident came a day after Israeli troops killed three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on soldiers near Nablus.
Israeli-Palestinian fighting has surged in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for a hoped-for future state.
In recent months, the West Bank has witnessed a volatile mix of the rise of local armed Palestinian groups carrying out frequent shooting attacks against Israelis and near-daily Israeli military raids that have increasingly turned deadly.
So far this year, over 161 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — the highest death toll in over a decade. Around half of them were affiliated with militant groups and killed in fighting during Israeli military raids, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions as well as innocent bystanders have also been killed.
Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 25 people this year.
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Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Nablus raid
The National / July 26, 2023
More than 180 people have been killed so far this year, says the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in a refugee camp near Nablus on Wednesday, taking the death toll to more than 180 people so far this year.
Mohammed Abd al-Hakim Nada, 23, was shot in the chest during a raid in the city, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
“A young man died of his wounds as the occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus at noon (1pm UAE),” the ministry said.
He was seriously injured after a house was surrounded in Al Ain camp and later died in hospital, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
The raid took place a day after three Palestinians were killed in Nablus, where Israeli troops opened fire on men it claimed were shooting at soldiers.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the three were members of its armed wing.
Figures released from the health ministry on Wednesday, before Nada’s death was announced, revealed 180 Palestinians have been killed so far this year across the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The Israeli army confirmed troops were conducting “counter-terrorism activity in Al-Ain camp” in Nablus but did not give further details.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades said its fighters had “ambushed a unit of special forces in the alleys of Al-Ain camp … and managed to inflict casualties” on Israeli troops.
Nablus and the city of Jenin have borne the brunt of almost daily Israeli raids, with the army sending Apache helicopters and drones over densely-populated refugee camps.
The cities have reported the highest number of deaths this year, with 52 in Jenin and 41 in Nablus.
A tally compiled by the Associated Press put the death toll at 202, including civilians and fighters.
This month, Israeli forces conducted a two-day raid on Jenin refugee camp that killed 12 Palestinians, including militants and children.
The raid on Jenin was one of the biggest operations carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank in years.
Thirty-one children are among this year’s victims, the health ministry said.
An 18-year-old Palestinian was shot dead on Saturday after an attempted car ramming, a day after another teenager was shot and killed by Israeli forces near Ramallah.
Violence has surged this year as Israel’s most right-wing government yet seeks to consolidate the occupation in the West Bank, including accelerating plans for settlement construction and cracking down on Palestinian militant groups.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Jun War.
