Three Palestinians, Israeli killed in West Bank violence

A dense cloud of smoke from the bombing of the Gaza Strip invades the Israeli border city of Ashkelon on the night of October 27, 2023 as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue. – The Israeli army on the evening of October 27 carried out bombings of “unprecedented” intensity since the start of the war in the north of the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza City, according to images from AFP and the Hamas movement. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)

Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, and an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, according to first responders.

Violence has surged across the West Bank for months and intensified further since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7.

On Thursday in El-Bireh, near the seat of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, two Palestinians, Ayham al-Shafei, 14 and Yazan Shiha, 24, were killed and two others wounded when Israeli troops opened fire during a raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Quran, was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, according to the ministry, and two others were wounded.

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the incidents.

Elsewhere, an Israeli was killed after his car came under fire near the settlement of Einav, said Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency response organisation.

Israeli officials have not identified the fatality.

The army said in a statement that it “has set up roadblocks in the area and is hunting down the terrorists” behind the alleged shooting near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry also reported the death of 14-year-old Hamdan Hamdan of wounds sustained Monday by Israeli fire in a village near Nablus.

For several months, the West Bank has seen increasing Israeli army raids, attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers and Palestinian assaults against Israeli settlers and security forces.

Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carried out raids on Palestinian militants there.

According to the Palestinian ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed around 130 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7.

Israeli officials say the Hamas attacks have killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israeli bombardments have killed more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, in the besieged Palestinian territory.
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