Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in West Bank raid

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians on Thursday in the flashpoint city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, the health ministry in Palestine said.

“Three killed by bullets from the Israeli occupation during its aggression in Jenin at dawn today,” the Palestinian health ministry reported.

Israeli-Palestinian war

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request to comment on their latest operation in Jenin, one of the near-daily raids across the West Bank launched in the wake of deadly attacks targeting Israelis earlier this year.

Fierce clashes between forces

The Islamic Jihad militant group said Thursday their fighters were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces in Jenin.

A surge in violence this year has seen at least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed across the West Bank, Israel and the contested city of Jerusalem.

The toll includes more than 40 Palestinians killed in the Jenin area during Israeli forces operations, including militants, children as young as 12, and veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

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Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War.

‘Drive-by’ killing in Palestine

Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, following what the Israeli army said was a drive-by shooting at a military post.

The Palestinian civil affairs ministry said “a citizen was killed, after being shot by the occupation (Israeli forces) near the town of Silwad” in the central West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the deceased as 32-year-old Muhajid Mahmoud Hamed.

Family members told AFP he had spent some 11 years in an Israeli prison, and was released around a year ago.

Hamed a ‘martyr’

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement issued a statement with a picture of Hamed and a rifle, praising him as a “martyr”.

Israel’s army said soldiers launched a manhunt after a drive-by shooting earlier Wednesday targeted a military post near Ofra, an Israeli settlement south of Silwad.

“During the pursuit, the suspect spotted the soldiers, got out of the vehicle and fired at them. The soldiers responded with live fire and neutralised the assailant,” an army statement said.