WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A
Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a group of Zionists in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the occupying regime’s military said, wounding three before Zionist troops opened fire at him, with the Palestinian health ministry saying he had been killed.
A Palestinian official said the 23-year-old was a member of the Palestinian security forces.
Mohammad Ra’ed Baradiyah, was gunned down by the regime’s forces near the town of Beit Ummar, north of the West Bank city of al-Khalil, also known as Al-Khalil, on Saturday, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, citing the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The ministry said Zionist troops opened fire at the young Palestinian man as he was driving his vehicle, critically injuring him. He later succumbed to his injuries.
After the shooting, Zionist troops left Baradiyah bleeding helplessly until he died of his wounds, while they prevented medical personnel from accessing the scene.
Following the incident, a spokesman for the Gaza Strip-based Hamas resistance movement, hailed the attack on the Zionist troops at the checkpoint near al-Khalil.
Muhammad Hamadeh said the operation near Beit Ummar was a natural response to the repeated Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people, the latest of which was killing a Palestinian youth at an entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Hamadeh stressed that the Palestinian people and resistance will not be deterred by the repeated Israeli crimes, affirming that they will continue to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque against desecration by Zionist troops and settlers.
The Islamic Jihad Movement, for its part, hailed “the heroic operation,” describing it as a natural response to the Zionist regime’s crimes against Palestinians.
The movement’s spokesman, Tariq Ezz-ed-Din, emphasized that the regime’s crimes against Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds, and the settlers’ incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, will not go unanswered.
He stressed that all attempts by the occupying regime to impose a new reality on the ground in Al-Aqsa will fail under the blows of the Palestinian resistance
The occupying regime has ramped up its violence against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank during the fasting month of Ramadan.
Baradiyah’s death came only hours after Zionist troops fatally shot another young Palestinian in front of one of the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of the occupied Al-Quds.
The Al-Quds incident overnight at the edge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, an icon of Palestinian nationalism, came at a high point of Muslim attendance for the holy month of Ramadan amid heightened fears of an escalation in violence.
Tensions are simmering after months of violence in areas of Al-Quds and the West Bank and friction at Al-Aqsa has set off violence in recent years.