TUBAS (Dispatches) – At least 85 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year as Zionist troops have carried out nightly raids in cities, towns and villages, making it the deadliest in the occupied territory since 2016.
Many of the victims are civilians, including a veteran journalist and a lawyer who apparently drove unwittingly into a battle zone, as well as local youths who took to the streets in response to the invasion of their neighborhoods.
The length and frequency of the raids has pulled into focus the Zionist regime’s tactics in the West Bank, where nearly 3 million Palestinians live under a decades-long occupation and Palestinians view the military’s presence as a humiliation and a threat.
Zionist troops have regularly operated across the West Bank since the regime occupied the territory in 1967.
In a latest development, Palestinian resistance fighters have reportedly exchanged fire with Zionist troops in several Israeli military positions in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli media reports said Palestinian fighters fired shots at a pillbox post north of the Zionist settlement of Ofra on Sunday night.
Nearly an hour later, Palestinians opened fire on Zionist troops near the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, as an exchange of fire took place in the area.
Moreover, Palestinian fighters opened fire on Zionist troops near Nablus.
The operations reportedly caused no casualties, but a Zionist trooper was injured by rocks hurled by Palestinians near al-Nabi Saleh village.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas hailed the shootings, praising “hands” that confront the Zionist regime’s crimes and its desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On Monday, Zionist troops stormed the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, and surrounded the house of former detainee Alaa Omar Zakarneh before arresting him.
The raid reportedly sparked clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in which 11 Palestinians were wounded.
Palestinian fighters have stepped up their acts of resistance against Zionist troops in the West Bank and al-Quds over the past months amid intensified crimes committed by the regime troops and settlers against Palestinians and their properties.
Palestinians are also outraged by rising settler attacks, backed by Zionist troops, on their villages.