Metropolis Desk-
The Palestinian health ministry reported that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops during a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank on Sunday. The army stated that it had engaged in “counter-terrorism” activity in the occupied region.
Since the beginning of last year, there has been an increase in violence related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in the West Bank, where the most recent murders brought the total number of Palestinians murdered in Israeli incursions since Tuesday to eight. The ministry reported that “two Palestinians were killed by live Israeli bullets to the head” in Tulkarem, and the army concurred, saying a soldier had been “moderately injured by gunshot fragments” amid fighting in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp.
Osaid Abu Ali, 22, and Abd Al-Rahman Abu Daghash, 32, were the two people who died, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The “two were civilians,” according to Ibrahim Al-Nimer, a local representative of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group in the camp. “The army entered the camp after 2:00 am… and demolished streets and some houses in the camp,” Nimer claimed.
According to an army statement, troops dismantled an “operational command center” inside a camp facility and found numerous explosives, including gas-based explosives. The suspects “opened fire and threw explosives at the forces who responded with live fire,” according to the army.
Such military operations, Palestinian attacks on Israelis, and settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank have all increased in recent months.
Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has held the West Bank under occupation.
There are currently about 490,000 Israelis living there, except in east Jerusalem, who reside in settlements that are deemed illegal by international law. The Palestinians, who aspire to establish their own independent state, demand that Israel leave all of the territory it took during the Six-Day War and remove all Jewish settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition government has pushed for the expansion of settlements, nevertheless. The extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is one of the settlers that make up the administration.
So far this year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed at least 241 lives among Palestinians. An AFP count based on official sources on both sides also shows that 32 Israelis, a Ukrainian, and an Italian had died in the bloodshed over the same time frame.
On the Palestinian side, they comprise both combatants and civilians, whereas on the Israeli side, they primarily consist of civilians, three of whom are Arab minority members and include minors.
With Palestinians staging regular demonstrations that have descended into violence at Israel’s border, unrest has also increased recently in the Israeli-blocked Gaza Strip.
After violent protests on Saturday during which Israeli fire injured three Palestinians, the Israeli army launched a drone strike.
The strike was one of a string that came amid demonstrations by Palestinians at the border following the Israeli closure of the single border gate into Israel from Gaza, Erez.
According to the army, the attack on Saturday was directed at “a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization,” a reference to the Palestinian militant movement that governs the Gaza Strip.
Source- Arab News
