Palestinian killed by Israeli troops in West Bank: ministry

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the army confirmed it had conducted a “counter-terrorism” operation in a Nablus refugee camp.

“A young man died of his wounds as the occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus at noon (0900 GMT),” the ministry said, referring to the Israeli army.

“The martyr, Mohammed Abd al-Hakim Nada, was shot in the chest.”

An Israeli army spokesman told AFP that troops had conducted a “counter-terrorism activity in Al-Ain camp” in Nablus.

In a separate statement, the army said that during the raid “suspects fired and hurled rocks and paint bottles at the soldiers, who responded with live fire.

“An armed assailant fired at the soldiers who responded with live fire, a hit was identified.”

Eyewitnesses told AFP that Israeli forces had stormed the neighborhood of Al-Muhayim and surrounded a house before arresting one Palestinian.

Troops “apprehended one wanted individual suspected of involvement in terrorist activity,” the army added.

A Palestinian militant group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, said its fighters had “ambushed a unit of special forces in the alleys of Al-Ain camp … and managed to inflict casualties”.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the group, which is linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, did not specify whether the dead man was one its fighters.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave of Gaza, condemned what it said was a “Zionist crime in Nablus”.

The group called on all “Palestinian factions to confront the terrorist settlers’ government”.

Wednesday’s death came a day after Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in an exchange of fire in Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Hamas said the three were members of its armed wing.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Since early last year, the territory has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces conducted a two-day raid on Jenin refugee camp razing large swathes of the area, and killing 12 Palestinians, including militants and children.

One Israeli soldier was also killed.

The raid on Jenin was one of the biggest operations carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank in years.

So far this year, violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed at least 202 Palestinians, 27 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides.

They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to nearly three million Palestinians, as well as around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.