AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s army killed a 21-year-old Palestinian militant on Wednesday during an arrest raid in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest deadly aggression as violence against Palestinians continues to surge in the occupied territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Ahmed Abu Junaid died several hours after he was struck in the head by a bullet during an incursion into the hardscrabble Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
The Zionist regime’s army reported several arrest raids across the West Bank early Wednesday. In the Balata refugee camp, a gunfight erupted between Palestinian fighters and Zionist troops, the army said, acknowledging that a Palestinian was hit.
Palestinian health officials said that Zionist troops surrounded a house in the congested camp during the arrest operation and unleashed live fire, tear gas and stun grenades at a crowd of young men.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed movement affiliated with Fatah — claimed Abu Junaid as a fighter. Pictures of him brandishing a rifle were shared widely on social media. His death brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Zionist troops’ fire so far in 2023 to five.
Meanwhile, Zionist troops demolished several Palestinian-owned homes across the West Bank, as the occupying regime continues its land grab policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Zionist troops raided the town of Kafr al-Dik, located west of Salfit on Tuesday, surrounding a house owned by a Palestinian, and evicting its residents before demolishing it, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
The house was knocked down under the pretext that it was built without so-called permits in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Zionist military rule and accounts for more than 60 percent of the occupied territories.
Zionist troops also fired tear gas canister at Palestinians who gathered to protest the demolition.
In the village of al-Diyouk al-Tahta, west of the occupied West Bank city of Ariha, Zionist bulldozers demolished a Palestinian-owned building and issued a demolition order against another which was built 15 years ago.
Four other structures were razed in the town of Anata, northeast of Al-Quds, after Zionist troops stormed the area. According to Anata mayor Taha Numan, the demolished structures were built near the separation wall and a retaining wall built over 70 years ago was destroyed as well.