JERUSALEM: The Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager in an army raid in the occupied West Bank.
He was the latest casualty in what is already one of the most violent periods in the West Bank in recent years.
The ministry said 17-year-old Hamza Al-Ashqar died of a gunshot wound to the head but provided no additional details about the incident. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The incident came a day after Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen linked to the Islamic militant Hamas group in a raid on refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army has staged almost nightly raids across Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank since a series of deadly attacks in Israel last spring. The Palestinian Authority declared it would cease security coordination with Israel after 10 Palestinians were killed in a raid last month.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Since the start of this year, 42 Palestinians have been killed in those territories. Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed some 30 people in 2022.
The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Palestinians: Teen killed in Israeli army raid in West Bank
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Palestinians: Teen killed in Israeli army raid in West Bank
- 17-year-old Hamza Al-Ashqar died of a gunshot wound to the head
- Since the start of this year, 42 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem
Israeli approval of West Bank land registration draws outrage
- Israel’s government has approved a process to register land in the West Bank, drawing condemnation
JERUSALEM: Israel’s government has approved a process to register land in the West Bank, drawing condemnation from Arab nations and critics who labelled it a “mega land grab” that would accelerate annexation of the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the measure would enable “transparent and thorough clarification of rights to resolve legal disputes” and was needed after unlawful land registration in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
But Egypt, Qatar and Jordan criticized the move as illegal under international law.
In a statement, the Egyptian government called it a “dangerous escalation aimed at consolidating Israeli control over the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned the “decision to convert West Bank lands into so-called ‘state property’,” saying it would “deprive the Palestinian people of their rights.”
The Palestinian Authority called for international intervention to prevent the “de facto beginning of the annexation process and the undermining of the foundations of the Palestinian state.”
Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now called Sunday’s measure a “mega land grab.”
According to public broadcaster Kan, land registration will be reopened in the West Bank for the first time since 1967 — when Israel captured the territory in the Middle East war.
The Israeli media reported that the process will take place only in Area C, which constitutes some 60 percent of West Bank territory and is under Israeli security and administrative control.
Palestinians see the West Bank as foundational to any future Palestinian state, but many on Israel’s religious right want to take over the land.
Last week, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo accords in place since the 1990s.
Those measures, which also sparked international backlash, include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and allowing Israeli authorities to administer certain religious sites in areas under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the territory.
