Violence continues in the occupied West Bank. Two Palestinians were killed on Friday August 21, one in Jenin, in the north, by fire from the Israeli army, and the other in the south of the territory by a settler, Palestinian sources and the army said.
“The Palestinian Ministry of Health has been informed that Fathi Ziadan Khazem, 58, died of his injuries after being shot by Israeli forces early Friday in Jenin,” the General Authority for Civil Affairs announced.
The Israeli army, for its part, affirmed that “during an operation in the Jenin area, a terrorist armed with a knife who had tried to stab a soldier was shot dead.”
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A witness, living in the same house, told AFP on condition of anonymity that “Israeli forces entered the house (…) they ordered him to raise his hands and he replied ‘who are you that I should raise my hands in front of you?’ then attacked them with a knife and they shot him seven times in front of his ten-year-old son.”
Fathi Ziadan Khazem, a former officer in the Palestinian security forces, was wanted by Israel after the attack committed by his son Raad Khazem in Tel Aviv in 2022 before being shot dead.
Three Israelis were killed and six injured in the attack. Another of his sons, Abdul Rahman, was killed by the Israeli army during a military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in September 2022.
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Shooting against “stone throwing”
In another incident, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported the death of a 17-year-old young man, “killed by settler fire” in Saïr, a town north of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank.
The Israeli army indicated that soldiers had intervened in this area, following Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli civilians.
“As a result of the stone throwing, Israeli civilians were injured,” the army said, adding that a “security official” had fired in the direction of the Palestinians and injured several of them.
This “security manager” is an inhabitant of a colony, responsible for security, the army told AFP.
“The soldiers acted to disperse the confrontation and remove the Israelis from the area where they had entered without authorization,” the military statement added.
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Violence has exploded in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
According to Jewish state figures, at least 48 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations since the start of the Gaza war.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Health Ministry data, Israeli soldiers or settlers killed at least 1,099 Palestinians during the same period.
With AFP
