WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A Zionist settler shot dead a Palestinian Saturday at a settler farm in the occupied West Bank after an alleged attempted stabbing, the army said, the latest incident as violence surges in the occupied territories.
The Zionist regime’s military confirmed the settler shot dead a Palestinian at Sde Efraim farm northwest of Ramallah/
The Palestinian health ministry said 42-year-old Tariq Maali was killed “after the occupation opened fire on him” near the Palestinian village of Kafr Nama.
The shooting brings to 18 the number of Palestinians killed so far this month in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally.
An AFP photographer saw Zionist troops preventing a Palestinian ambulance from accessing the site.
Mahmoud Aidi, a Palestinian medic, said first responders tried to reach the scene but there was “a strong army presence concentrated on the hill, and we weren’t permitted to reach the person killed”.
The occupying regime’s army said an Israeli ambulance took away the body of a man who was “already dead at the scene, so there was no medical treatment to be given”.
No one else was wounded in the incident, it added.
All settlements are deemed illegal under international law.
Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to pursue a policy of increased settlement expansion in the West Bank, and radical Zionist parties in his coalition advocate the annexation of some of the territory.
In another development, newly-released footage shows Zionist settlers drinking alcohol and urinating in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Al-Quds.
According to footage published by the Middle East Monitor on Friday, two settlers are seen taking alcoholic drinks and another one urinating at a corner of the holy place.
The blatant acts of desecration come in continuation of the Zionists’ provocations at the Muslims’ third holiest site.
Dozens of settlers stormed the mosque compound late on Thursday under the protection of the regime’s troops. According to eyewitnesses, the radical settlers raised Israeli flags and performed provocative dances inside the vicinity.
The resistance movement Hamas called upon Palestinians from all walks of life to mobilize en masse, increase presence at the mosque’s compound, and protect the sacred site against recurrent incursions by Zionist settlers.
“We hail the Palestinian people in occupied Palestinian territories and across the West Bank who stand steadfast against the Israeli occupation violations and crimes,” it said in a statement.