A Palestinian man died after being shot in the head by the Israeli army in Beit Ommar, near Hebron, a city in the southern West Bank where tensions remain high between Israeli settlers and the Palestinian population local.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it opened fire on “rioters” who had thrown rocks and explosive devices at the soldiers after two army vehicles patrolling near Beit Ommar got stuck in the area. following a technical problem.
Then, in Kafr Ein, near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, Jawad and Dhafer Abdul Rahman Rimawi, two brothers aged 22 and 21 respectively, were killed by Israeli army fire, said added the Palestinian ministry. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on this second incident.
After these clashes, the armed Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip and which has support in the West Bank in particular, indicated in a press release that the Israeli “escalation” would meet “increasing resistance” from the Palestinians .
Violence has intensified in recent months in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
In the wake of deadly attacks in Israel last March and April and other attacks that followed, the Israeli army carried out more than 2,000 raids in the West Bank, particularly in the areas of Jenin and Nablus (north), strongholds of armed groups.
These raids, and the clashes that are sometimes associated with them, have killed more than 125 Palestinians, the heaviest toll in seven years, according to the UN.