Ramallah: A Palestinian was killed in the early hours of Friday in a town that has been the scene of frequent violence in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
“Labib Mohammad Lahib Damidi, 19, was shot in the heart by settlers in the town of Hawara,” the ministry said in a statement, without giving further details.
The Israeli army said in a statement that a suspect had been shot by soldiers.
Hawara, in the northern West Bank, has witnessed several fatal shootings by Palestinians against Israelis in cars this year. Jewish settlers have carried out reprisal attacks against the local population and their property.
Late on Thursday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who had opened fire on a car stuck in traffic at a junction adjacent to Hawara, without hitting any of the Israeli civilians inside, the army said.
After midnight, dozens of Israeli civilians gathered in an area of Hawara and engaged in stone-throwing clashes with Palestinians, the army said, before soldiers intervened with “riot dispersal means to defuse the confrontation.”
In its statement, the army said a suspect “threw a block at an Israeli vehicle,” prompting soldiers to respond with live fire. It added that “a hit was identified.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 58 people at the scene of the clashes who had suffered from tear gas inhalation.
The military said it had received reports “regarding vandalism of the properties of Palestinian residents of the town by Israeli civilians.”
In February, dozens of Israeli settlers set fire to numerous buildings in Hawara after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in the town.
A surge in violence has hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
There has been a rise in army raids, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property.
So far this year at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners have been killed in the conflict, including combatants and civilians on both sides, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli settlers in West Bank
https://arab.news/98b3y
Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli settlers in West Bank
- Labib Mohammad Lahib Damidi, 19, was shot in the heart by settlers in the town of Hawara,
- A surge in violence has hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war
UN rights chief warns Israeli land-control moves in West Bank amount to unlawful annexation
- ‘We are witnessing rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory, stripping its people of their lands and forcing them to leave’
- Human Rights Office warns of increasing attacks by Israeli settlers and security forces, as well as reports of forced transfers, evictions, demolitions, land seizures and restrictions on movement
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, on Wednesday condemned recent decisions by Israel’s Security Cabinet to expand the expropriation of land in the occupied West Bank.
He described the moves as a step toward unlawful annexation, and a violation of the right of Palestinians to self-determination.
The measures, approved on Sunday, expand Israeli civilian authority in parts of the West Bank, known as “Areas A and B” under the Oslo Accords, in which certain powers are currently exercised by the Palestinian Authority.
“This is yet another step by the Israeli authorities toward rendering a viable Palestinian state impossible, in violation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Turk said.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, the package of measures alter existing legal arrangements to allow Israeli authorities and individuals to acquire land in those areas, a move Turk said violates the laws of occupation.
“If these decisions are implemented, they will undoubtedly accelerate the dispossession of Palestinians and their forcible transfer, and lead to the creation of more illegal Israeli settlements,” he said.
“This will also further deprive Palestinians of their natural resources and restrict their enjoyment of other human rights.”
The measures would “further cement Israel’s control and integration of the occupied West Bank into Israel, consolidating unlawful annexation,” Turk added.
The decisions also strip the Palestinian Authority of certain planning and building powers in parts of Hebron, including the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, and establish Israeli administrative control over Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, he said.
“This not only violates the land rights of Palestinians, but also their cultural rights in respect of sites of particular significance,” he added.
Turk’s comments came amid what the Human Rights Office described as a broader pattern of increasing attacks by Israeli settlers and security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank, including reports of forced transfers, evictions, home demolitions, land seizures and restrictions on movement.
“We are witnessing rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory, stripping its people of their lands and forcing them to leave,” Turk said.
The measures were “supported by rhetoric and actions by senior Israeli officials” that violated Israel’s obligations as an occupying power to preserve the existing legal order, he warned.
“These decisions must be overturned,” Turk added. “The settlements must be evacuated. The occupation must end. Now.”
