Since the beginning of the year, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 160 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Ramallah, West Bank occupied –
During a raid on Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a young Palestinian man.
Mateen Dabaya, 20, was slain on Friday morning, according to a Palestinian health ministry official.
He was shot with a bullet to the head, ministry spokesperson Mohammad Awawdeh said.
The killing took place shortly after dozens of Israeli armoured vehicles raided Jenin on Friday at 8 am (05:00 GMT), during which confrontations broke out with Palestinian youths.
A physician in his 40s, Abdullah al-Ahmad, was also seriously wounded by a bullet to the head and is currently in critical condition in Jenin’s public hospital, Awawdeh said.
Videos shared by local journalists appeared to show Israeli forces shooting at ambulance crews.
At least five others have been wounded with live ammunition on Friday morning in Jenin, according to the health ministry.
Earlier on Friday, the state news agency Wafa announced that a Palestinian teenager had succumbed to wounds he sustained during his arrest by Israeli forces last month.
Wafa, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees Commission, identified him as 17-year-old Mohammad Maher Ghawadreh.
Ghawadreh, from the Jenin refugee camp, died while being treated at the Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel. He was arrested after he allegedly carried out a shooting attack on a bus full of Israeli soldiers in the occupied Jordan Valley, wounding seven, on September 5.
At least 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the illegally occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year, including 51 Palestinians during Israel’s three-day assault on Gaza in August, according to the health ministry.
Israel has been carrying out near-daily raids in the West Bank, largely focused on the towns of Jenin and Nablus, where Palestinian armed resistance is becoming more organised.
Local and international rights groups have condemned what they call Israel’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against Palestinians, including suspected assailants, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Senior Israeli politicians have encouraged “Israeli soldiers and police to kill Palestinians they suspect of attacking Israelis even when they are no longer a threat”, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted in reports that Israeli forces “often use firearms against Palestinians on mere suspicion or as a precautionary measure, in violation of international standards”.