West Bank: Third Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in past 24 hours

Middle East Eye  /  June 2, 2022

Ayman Mahmoud Muhaisen, a 29-year-old former prisoner, was shot dead at the Dheisheh camp near Bethlehem.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the third Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours.

Ayman Mahmoud Muhaisen, a 29-year-old former prisoner, was shot dead at the Dheisheh camp near Bethlehem, while another Palestinian was injured.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army had no immediate comment.

On Wednesday, Bilal Awad Tawfiq Kabha was shot as Israeli forces launched a raid in the village of Yabad in the West Bank. Security forces had moved in to demolish the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a March attack that killed five people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak.

The health ministry said the 24-year-old died in hospital in Jenin, after being admitted in critical condition, having been “shot by live bullets in the chest and thigh”.

Palestinian news agency Wafa said that six Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli raid.

The army added that it had on 17 April informed the family of Diya Hamarshah, 27, of the demolition order against the family home.

Israel regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.

The practice, which often fuels tensions, has been condemned by critics as a form of collective punishment. Israel insists it deters attacks.

‘Field execution’

On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian woman as she was heading to her new job with a local media network in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Ghufran Harun Warasneh, 31, was shot through the torso near the Al-Arroub refugee camp and pronounced dead in the hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said.

An unnamed eyewitness told Palestinian news agency Wafa that Warasneh was walking towards the main road when two soldiers manning a military checkpoint asked her to approach them before one of them shot her. 

The Israeli army claimed in a statement that “an assailant armed with a knife advanced towards a soldier who was conducting routine security activity on Route 60. The soldiers responded with live fire”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces on the scene had blocked its medics from reaching Warasneh for 20 minutes before they managed to transfer her to al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the killing as a “field execution”.