Scene of a security incident near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
Sun, January 15, 2023
By Ali Sawafta
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian motorist in the occupied West Bank on Sunday during what a witness said was a scuffle at a crowded checkpoint, with the Israeli army saying the man had tried to grab a soldier's gun.
Palestinian medics summoned to the scene near Silwad village said they found 45-year-old Ahmed Kahleh with a fatal bullet wound to the neck. Kahleh's son had been pepper-sprayed, they said. Reuters was not immediately able to reach him for comment.
Relatives said both father and son worked in construction and had been driving together to their jobs.
The West Bank, among areas where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen an increase in violence since U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel stalled in 2014.
Tensions have surged following an intensification of raids by Israel in response to a spate of Palestinian street attacks in its cities last year.
A Palestinian motorist, who said he had witnessed Sunday's shooting, described tempers fraying earlier at the checkpoint, with drivers honking horns in impatience as they waited.
"The army fired stun grenades and one of the grenades hit the man's (Kahleh's) car and the man began shouting at the soldiers," said the motorist, Maher Hadid, 37. When soldiers approached the car and used pepper spray, Kahleh got out, scuffled with them and was shot, Hadid said.
A statement from an Israeli army spokesperson said troops had "identified a suspicious vehicle which refused to stop for a routine inspection" and had "used riot dispersal means in order to detain one of the suspects in the vehicle".
In an ensuing "violent confrontation", one of the suspects was shot as he tried to seize one of the soldiers' weapons, said the statement, without specifying whether the suspect shot was the same as the one detained.
A video posted on social media on Sunday, which Reuters could not independently verify, showed a man grappling with two soldiers in an underpass while a third soldier is nearby. In the video, a soldier appears to fire a rifle at a low angle. Another shot is heard, and the man falls out of view.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by James Mackenzie and Jane Merriman)
Palestinians say Israeli army kills 14-year-old during raid
Mon, January 16, 2023
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Israeli security forces fatally shot a 14-year-old Palestinian during an early morning raid Monday into a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest incident in weeks of surging violence.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the teenager as Omar Khumour and said he died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. Crowds of Palestinians full of rage massed outside the hospital where he died in Bethlehem, chanting against Israel and praising God.
The Israeli army said forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.
The death of Khumour brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank so far this year to 14, including three people under the age of 18, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Violence and unrest have raged for months in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for their hoped-for state. Some half-million Israelis now live in about 130 settlements across the West Bank, which the Palestinians and much of the international community view as an obstacle to peace.
The Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids in the territory since last spring. The raids were prompted by a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people, while another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.
Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed.
Masked Palestinians carry the body of 14-year-old Omar Khumour during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Khumour died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said that forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.
Mon, January 16, 2023
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Israeli security forces fatally shot a 14-year-old Palestinian during an early morning raid Monday into a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest incident in weeks of surging violence.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the teenager as Omar Khumour and said he died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. Crowds of Palestinians full of rage massed outside the hospital where he died in Bethlehem, chanting against Israel and praising God.
The Israeli army said forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.
The death of Khumour brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank so far this year to 14, including three people under the age of 18, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Violence and unrest have raged for months in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for their hoped-for state. Some half-million Israelis now live in about 130 settlements across the West Bank, which the Palestinians and much of the international community view as an obstacle to peace.
The Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids in the territory since last spring. The raids were prompted by a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people, while another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.
Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed.
Masked Palestinians carry the body of 14-year-old Omar Khumour during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Khumour died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said that forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.
(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
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