NABLUS (Dispatches) –
Zionist troops have fatally shot a young Palestinian man during a violent raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The incident took place at the Balata refugee camp in the east of Nablus City early on Thursday, as the Palestinians clashed with the Zionist troops who had stormed the camp to make arrests.
According to Palestinian medical and security sources, Bakir Hashash, 21, was shot in the head.
Hashash’s mother, relatives and friends gathered at Rafidia Hospital after the arrival of his body aboard an ambulance.
The occupying regime’s military frequently carries out wide-ranging arrest campaigns across the West Bank under the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians.
The Tel Aviv regime has been criticized for its extensive use of lethal force against and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians who do not pose an immediate threat to the occupation forces.
In another development, an elderly Palestinian man was critically injured on Wednesday in Umm al-Khair, after a tow truck accompanying Zionist police raiding the West Bank village allegedly deliberately ran him over.
Suleiman al-Hathalin, a 75-year-old activist and community leader from Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets in the South Al-Khalil Hills, was taken to hospital following the incident.
Fouad al-Hmour, 38, an activist with the popular resistance committee in Masafer Yatta, said the police had arrived in Umm al-Khair in the afternoon to seize unregistered and allegedly stolen vehicles in the village.
“Lots of people from the village, including Haj Suleiman, came to the area where the police were and attempted to block their entrance into the village to stop them from seizing the vehicles,” Hmour told Middle East Eye, referring to Hathalin.
He said a scuffle ensued between locals and the Zionist police as they loaded a number of vehicles onto the tow truck.
Zionist police then started firing live ammunition and tear gas into the crowd, causing people to disperse, Hmour added.
“Haj Suleiman was standing on the side of the road when the tow truck suddenly veered off the road, and drove straight into him, before getting back on the road and leaving,” said Hmour.
The Palestinian presidency has warned against rising crimes and killings by Zionist troops and extremist settlers, stressing that the situation could spiral out of control across the occupied territories.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Palestinian leadership held the Zionist regime accountable for killings, arrests and settler crimes targeting Palestinian civilians.
It urged the international community to intervene and provide international protection for the Palestinian people. It appealed to everyone to assume their responsibilities before the situation explodes in an uncontrollable manner.
The statement called on the United States, a close ally of the occupying regime, to refrain from offering unconditional support for the regime.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan in their recent meeting that without a “political horizon,” any small incident on the ground could create an escalation that may spiral out of control, as it has happened repeatedly in the past, it said.