Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in two days as tensions flare

Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in two days as tensions flare

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, June 2: Israeli troops shot dead a teen in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the fourth Palestinian killed in the occupied territory in two days.
The ministry identified the slain Palestinian as 17-year-old Odeh Odeh, who was hit in the chest by what it said was an Israeli bullet near the village of Al-Madiya, west of Ramallah.
The Israeli army said “three suspects threw a firebomb” at soldiers “operating near the security barrier” adjacent to Al-Madiya.
“The soldiers responded with fire toward the suspects, and a hit was identified,” the army said.
It came hours after a Palestinian man was killed during a clash with Israeli forces conducting an arrest operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem.
On Wednesday, a woman approaching soldiers with a knife was shot, and later that day a man was killed in an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli security forces have stepped up their operations in the West Bank in recent months, carrying out almost daily raids to arrest suspects after a spate of deadly attacks inside Israel. The army said troops had entered Dheisheh to arrest a Palestinian “suspected of terrorist activities” and were met with volleys of petrol bombs and cement blocks.
They responded with live rounds.
Late Wednesday, Israeli troops mounted an incursion into the village of Yabad outside the flashpoint northern district of Jenin, to demolish the home of the assailant who carried out a March attack that killed five people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak. The health ministry said that after that raid a Palestinian man died in hospital in Jenin. He had been admitted in critical condition, having been “shot by live bullets in the chest and thigh”.
Palestinian news agency Wafa said that six Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli raid. The army said it had also arrested the “terrorist’s father”.
It said it had informed the family of the shooter, Diaa Hamarsha, on April 17 of the demolition order against the family home.