Israeli troops kill Palestinian in West Bank raid
Palestinians inspect the damage in Nur Shams refugee camp as an Israeli raid on the Tulkarem area of the occupied West Bank enters a second day
Tulkarem – Palestinian health officials said Israeli troops killed a man Thursday on the second day of an operation in the Tulkarem area, a day after violence in the occupied West Bank killed 10.
Unrest in the West Bank has surged alongside the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The latest death followed the deaths of five people in the Tulkarem refugee camp on Wednesday in an air strike which the Israeli military said targeted “terrorists”.
A 27-year-old man was shot dead in Nur Shams camp on the edge of Tulkarem on Thursday, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the health ministry said.
Local official Rami Elyan said the man killed was a civilian not involved in fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.
The Israeli army said troops had killed “at least eight terrorists” in Tulkarem in an operation that had already lasted 35 hours.
The military told AFP troops had returned fire and were working to “uncover roads where explosive devices were planted”.
A young resident said a bulldozer had been used in Nur Shams and AFP footage showed children playing in the wreckage of a destroyed house, with collapsed walls and debris all around.
“We won’t leave the camp. It’s our camp,” Qais Muhayen al-Shams told AFP, adding the bulldozer had been driven into a house while people were still inside.
– ‘Ignite more fires’ –
Drawing on the impact on civilians, the Palestinian foreign ministry slammed the Tulkarem raid as pandering to “calls from the ruling (Israeli) far right to escalate violence and ignite more fires in the conflict zone”.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said hundreds of residents have been rounded up in Tulkarem and subjected to interrogation, with some subjected to “severe beatings” by Israeli forces.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and its troops regularly carry out incursions into Palestinian communities.
West Bank raids have escalated since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began more than three months ago, increasingly lasting days and accompanied by air strikes.
Five Palestinian militants were also killed Wednesday in an Israeli strike targeting a car in Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
Mourners gathered Thursday for the funeral of one of those killed, whose body was shrouded in a Palestinian flag.
The Red Crescent said its medics treated multiple people wounded in Tulkarem, as well as Ramallah in the central West Bank.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 360 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Over the same period, Israeli forces have arrested more than 6,000 Palestinians, according to the Prisoners’ Club.