Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian assailant at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Saturday June 24, in a new episode of violence in the occupied West Bank, marked by new attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
These latest incidents bring the death toll since Monday in this territory to twenty (sixteen Palestinians and four Israelis). Palestinians said hundreds of Israelis had attacked their villages in recent days after Palestinians killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement on Tuesday.
In a joint statement, the heads of the Israeli army, police and internal security agency (Shin Bet) denounced on Saturday evening a “nationalist terrorism”in reference to these attacks. “This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and undermines the State of Israel and the international legitimacy of the Israeli security forces to fight against Palestinian terrorism”is added.
Palestinian properties attacked
“A suspect opened fire on the security forces operating at the crossing point (Qalandiya) »Israeli police said in a statement earlier, as the attack was claimed by a Palestinian armed group. “The security forces (…) faced the threat by retaliating and neutralized the terrorist. The death of the terrorist was later confirmed at the scene., added the police. The Qalandiya checkpoint is the main crossing point used by Palestinians between annexed East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The official Palestinian Wafa news agency identified the person killed as Ishaq Al-Ajlouni, aged 17 or 18 and from the Kufr Aqab neighborhood just north of the checkpoint. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, said in a statement that their “heroic fighters (…) were able to directly target the occupying soldiers (Israelis) at the Qalandiya checkpoint”.
Later in the day, the Israeli army reported “Violent friction between Israeli citizens and Palestinians” in the village of Umm Safa, in the northern West Bank. “Reports of Israeli citizens setting fire to Palestinian properties”, the army said in a statement, adding that a soldier was injured and an Israeli was arrested. It is the latest such incident after Palestinians killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement on Tuesday.
Ambulance attacked
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has indicated that an ambulance “was attacked with stones by settlers (Israelis) near the village of Umm Safa” Saturday, injuring the driver.
In addition, a 39-year-old man succumbed to his injuries on Saturday after being “shot down by the occupier (Israel) Friday at dawn in Nablus », in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Israeli army was unable to comment on this information.
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Apart from annexed East Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israelis reside in settlements in the West Bank, a territory where 2.9 million Palestinians live. Since the beginning of the year, at least 176 Palestinians, 25 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources .
These statistics include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.