UPDATE 2 – Israeli army kills Palestinian teen during northern West Bank raid

UPDATES WITH ARRESTS

By Aysar Alais and Rania Abu Shamala

RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) – A Palestinian teenager was killed and another wounded early Sunday during an Israeli military raid on the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus, northern West Bank, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported.

Ameed Hassan, director of ambulance and emergency services at the Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus, said two youths were injured during clashes with Israeli forces in the camp.

One was shot in the chest with live ammunition and died from his wounds, while the other was shot in the back and transferred to the hospital.

Large Israeli forces had stormed Nablus from several directions, triggering confrontations in the Askar camp, during which soldiers opened live fire at residents.

The Israeli army also raided the Ras al-Ain, Al-Basha, and Old City neighborhoods and their surroundings.

According to local sources, Israeli forces detained 14 Palestinians during Sunday’s raids that targeted the cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, and Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers vandalized four Palestinian vehicles by smashing their windows and slashing their tires in the town of Sinjel, north of Ramallah, in the central West Bank, local authorities said.

The Sinjel Municipality said the settlers staged their attack on the town at around 2 am.

“Sinjel has been facing an escalating wave of settler violence,” it added in a statement.

Bahaa Faqih, deputy head of the Sinjel Municipality, said earlier that the town had been subjected to dozens of attacks by illegal settlers and army forces since October 2023, leaving at least four people dead and dozens injured, while dozens of homes, vehicles, and agricultural fields were burned.

The town remains surrounded by settlement outposts and a barbed-wire fence that isolates it from its surroundings.

Around 770,000 illegal settlers live in the occupied West Bank, spread across more than 180 settlements and 256 outposts, according to Palestinian estimates.

Attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers have escalated in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war in October 2023, killing more than 1,070 Palestinians and injuring 10,700 others, Palestinian figures showed.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.