UPDATE - Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians in occupied West Bank

ADDS 1 MORE KILLED, REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, CHANGES DECK

By Said Amori and Tarek Chouiref​​​​​​​

JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL (AA) - The Israeli army killed two Palestinians on Friday in the southern occupied West Bank.

The army claimed that the Palestinian, whose name and age were not specified in a statement, came to the area “carrying a knife and attempted to stab,” and a security guard fired and “neutralized” him.

No Israeli forces were injured in the incident, it added.

Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces shot a young man with live ammunition near the Israeli settlement of Shama, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, without confirming the army’s account of a stabbing attempt.

Later, the army shot and killed a young Palestinian man near the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, and seized his body.

In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said the General Authority of Civil Affairs, which is the liaison body with Israel, informed it that a citizen, whose identity is not yet known, was killed by Israeli gunfire near Beit Fajjar, and the army seized his body.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 1,008 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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