Jerusalem: A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli troops 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 the Al-Ein refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus and arrested a man suspected of shooting at an Israeli bus earlier this week, Palestinian media reported. During the incident, Mohammed Nada, 23, was shot in the chest and later died of his wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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.
Earlier this month, Israel’s most forceful incursion into the West Bank in nearly two decades killed 12 Palestinians — at least 8 of them militants — and one Israeli soldier.
Late Monday, Palestinian militants said they opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Hawara, just south of Nablus, without causing casualties. The Israeli military said it was setting up checkpoints to search for the suspects. A little-known armed group from the area calling itself the “Dawn Brigade” claimed responsibility for the shooting.
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.
