Israeli army says kills Palestinian after attack on soldiers

JERUSALEM (AFP): Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank Sunday after he attacked troops with Molotov cocktails, the army said, following the earlier police shooting of a Palestinian teen.

Israeli soldiers “acted to stop the attack by firing at one of the suspects” near Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, an army statement said, adding that “the suspect was hit and later succumbed to his wounds.”

It said another suspect managed to flee.

The Palestinian health ministry said 16-year-old Yamen Jafal was shot dead “by the occupation forces”.

Nine other Palestinians have been killed since February 8 in the West Bank. Palestinian attacks against Israeli security forces, including lone wolf stabbings, are common in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Just before dawn on Sunday, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian teen after he stabbed and wounded an officer in Jerusalem’s Old City, according to police.

The Palestinian health ministry identified him as Karim Jamal al-Qawasmi.

The 19-year-old “approached police officers who were stationed at the Bab Huta Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them,” a police statement said, adding that the assailant was shot and later pronounced dead on the scene by medics.

The Old City is in the Israeli-annexed eastern part of Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.

On February 22, Israel’s army said troops shot a Palestinian suspect in Al-Khader, in the Bethlehem area, who was among three suspects who “hurled Molotov cocktails at passing drivers, endangering their lives”.

The Palestinian health ministry said a 14-year-old was killed.

Last Tuesday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians after coming under fire during an arrest raid at Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Israeli border police and Palestinian health authorities said.

Another Palestinian was killed in a separate incident that day.

On February 8, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during a daytime raid against what Israel described as a “terrorist cell”, leaving a vehicle in the West Bank city of Nablus riddled with bullet holes.

Two teenagers were killed by Israeli gunfire in other incidents in early February.

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Since then, about 475,000 Jewish settlers have moved into the territory, living in communities considered illegal under international law, alongside nearly 2.9 million Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the former head of a settler lobbying council who opposes Palestinian statehood.

He has ruled out any formal peace talks with Palestinians during his tenure, but said he will work to improve economic conditions in the West Bank, parts of which the Palestinian Authority has civilian control over.