Israeli army open fire killing Palestinian man in clashes at West Bank shrine

JERUSALEM (AP): Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near a shrine in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest bloodshed in a cycle of violence that has gripped the region.

The months of fighting with rising fatalities have shown no signs of abating and has become the worst violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.

Thursday’s shooting took place as Israeli forces escorted Israeli worshippers, including the Israeli police chief and the head of the local Jewish settler council, to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The shrine has long been a flashpoint for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Nablus has also become a central point of violence in the current escalation.

The Israeli military said that during the visit, suspects opened fire and threw explosives, rocks and burning tires at troops, who returned fire.

Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the man killed by Israeli fire as 19-year-old Badr Al-Masri. It reported that three others were treated for wounds.

Fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank intensified early last year when Israel launched near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas in the West Bank in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

The violence has spiked this year, with more than 150 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israeli says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.

Israel says its almost-nightly raids raids across the West Bank are essential to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see the violence as a natural response to 56 years of occupation, including stepped-up settlement construction by Israel’s government and increased violence by Jewish settlers.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.