Deadly clashes continue in the northern occupied West Bank. Thursday morning, September 15, a Palestinian teenager was killed with a “head shot” by Israeli forces in the village of Kfar Dan, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli army announced that it was deployed in this village to “identify the houses of the two terrorists” having killed an Israeli soldier the day before, with the aim of then destroying them, as required by its policy against the perpetrators of anti-Israeli attacks. “We will not hesitate to act where the Palestinian Authority does not maintain order”Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, an Israeli soldier and two Palestinians from the village of Kfar Dan were killed in exchanges of fire at the Jalameh checkpoint, a crossing point between Israel and the occupied West Bank. The attack, which had cost the life of the soldier, had been claimed by the Brigades of the martyrs of Al-Aqsa, the armed wing of Fatah, the party of the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Deadliest year since 2016
Since a series of attacks against Israelis which have killed nineteen people since March, the Israeli army has increased its operations in the north of the occupied West Bank, particularly in the regions of Nablus and Jenin, where Palestinian armed groups are assets.
These operations, frequently marked by clashes with the local population or combatants, resulted in the arrest of more than 1500 people, according to the head of the Israeli army, Aviv Kohavi. They also led to the death of dozens of people on the Palestinian side, making this the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2016.
On Sunday, a Palestinian member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades succumbed to his wounds inflicted a few days earlier. He had been wounded by bullets during clashes with the army which came to destroy in Jenin the accommodation of the author of a fatal attack on three Israelis on April 7 in Tel Aviv. Last week, two members of Palestinian armed Islamist movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were killed in raids. Several civilians were also killed during these operations, including Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
“Our Palestinian people in Jenin, Nablus and all the cities of the West Bank are pursuing a massive revolution and a permanent struggle against the occupation” israeli, “in response to his crimes”Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, said yesterday.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, at the end of what the Jewish state calls the “Six-Day War”.