JENIN: Palestinian officials claimed that Israeli forces killed three Palestinians and wounded another on Thursday during a firefight in a West Bank city.
Following a series of deadly attacks on Israelis, the army has carried out scores of near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank throughout much of this year. The gunfire occurred during the most recent of these raids.
Global concern has been sparked by the growing violence.
In the Jenin city, Israeli forces claimed that there were no casualties in the firefight with Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, “by bullets from the Israeli occupation during its aggression in Jenin at dawn,” three individuals accepted martyrdom.
The Israeli military stated that troops entered to detain individuals “suspected of involvement in terrorist activity.”
According to a statement released by the army, “The soldiers operated while being targeted with direct fire and responded with live fire.”
In the city in the northern West Bank, the Islamic Jihad group claimed that its members engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces.
According to Mahmud al-Saadi, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, an ambulance crew was evacuating a wounded person when it came under fire “from a building where Israeli snipers were present.”
According to AFP, the Israeli military is “not aware” of such allegations.
Atta Shalabi, Sidqi Zakarneh, and Tariq Damej were identified as the deceased by the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin.
For their funeral procession, Palestinians carried the deceased through the streets.
The Israeli army claimed that over the course of the night on Wednesday and Thursday, it had carried out a number of operations throughout the West Bank to apprehend wanted individuals in towns like Bethlehem and Ramallah.
The army claimed that Palestinians “hurled rocks and paint bottles at cars” on a road northwest of Ramallah during the evening of Thursday.
Deyaa Erhimi, a 16-year-old from the nearby village of Beit Rima, was identified by a Palestinian security source as the victim, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The ministry added that two more people were injured in the incident and were taken to a hospital.
International alarm
A flood in carnage this year has seen 26 Israelis and something like 150 Palestinians killed across Israel and the West Bank.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli operations in the Jenin area, including children as young as 12 and Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American journalist, among others.
In light of the ongoing “Palestinian bloodshed,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh urged the international community “to protect our people.”
“Greatly concerned about the increasing level of violence,” the European Union said Saturday.
“For all parties to do everything in their power to de-escalate the situation” has also been a request made by a spokesperson for the US State Department.
Also last week, Tor Wennesland, the United Nations peace envoy for the Middle East, said that the situation in the territory was “getting to a boiling point.”
Palestinians gathered for the funeral of Muhajid Mahmoud Hamed, 32, who was killed by Israeli troops on Wednesday in what the army claimed was a drive-by shooting that was targeting a military post. The event took place in the West Bank town of Silwad.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which it has annexed.
