WEST BANK (Dispatches) –
Zionist troops shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence.
Palestinian Health Ministry said Salah Muhammad Ali, 16, was shot in the chest and eventually succumbed to his wounds at a local hospital.
The Palestinian teenager was pronounced dead hours after the regime’s forces raided the camp to raze down the family house of a Palestinian.
The Israeli military raid on the Shuafat refugee camp on Wednesday sparked confrontations with unarmed local youth and armed clashes with Palestinian fighters, according to reports.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified another Palestinian shot dead shot as Aref Abdel Nasser Lahlouh, 20. The regime’s military claimed the man was carrying a knife and was shot after he attempted to attack a soldier at a military post.
Lahlouh’s death brings to 19 the number of Palestinians killed by Zionist fire this year. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year, making it the deadliest since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
Tensions have been high for months as the occupying regime has been conducting nightly arrest raids in the West Bank.
Earlier Wednesday, Zionist troops demolished the home of a Palestinian gunman who allegedly killed a female Zionist soldier in an attack last year.
The home demolition came in the first weeks of the regime’s new far-right cabinet, which has pushed a hard line against the Palestinians and promised to ramp up settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Police said some 300 officers and troops entered the Shuafat refugee camp to demolish the home of Uday Tamimi, who the occupying regime said was behind the deadly shooting at a checkpoint in October.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has cautioned Netanyahu against attempts at changing the status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in light of increasing desecrations of the holy place.
During a surprise visit Netanyahu paid to Amman on Tuesday, King Abdullah told the far-right Zionist PM that the Israeli regime should respect the “historic and legal status quo in the Holy Al-Aqsa mosque and not violate it.”
The Jordanian king was quoted as telling Netanyahu that an end to violence was crucial to allow long-stalled “peace” talks to resume between the Palestinians and the Zionist regime.
Netanyahu’s return to power has deepened Amman’s concerns that extremist policies, which include accelerated settlement expansion in the Palestinian occupied territories in the West Bank, will lead to a new cycle of violence.
Jordan signed a so-called peace deal with the occupying regime in 1994, but Jordanians are at odds with their government and oppose any form of normalization of ties with the occupying regime.