Palestinian teen killed during West Bank raid by Israeli army; UN warns about rise in settler ‘incidents’

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager, early Friday (August 4), during a pre-dawn raid into the occupied West Bank, reported the Palestinian media and the Palestinian health ministry. This comes as tensions have remained high in the region with the Israeli army conducting near-nightly raids and deadly Palestinian attacks on Israel.

What do we know about the raid?

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli soldiers shot 18-year-oldMahmoud Abu Sa’anat point-blank range as they stormed the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem on Friday morning.

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Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in a statement said that their forces retaliated at Palestinian gunmen who opened fire and hurled explosives, and other rioters throwing stones.

They also said that the overnight Tulkarem raid was part of an Israeli military arrest operation where they reportedly detained five Palestinians across occupied West Bank villages, confiscated explosives and dispersed protests in a village near the city of Ramallah.

A report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing local witnesses, said an Israeli soldier got out of one of the military vehicles and shot Abu Sa’an in the head while he was lying on the ground. Subsequently, the 18-year-old – who was reportedly a recent high school graduate – was rushed to the Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem where he was pronounced dead.

Local media reports also said that confrontations broke out between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces during the raid. The Israeli army had also stationed snipers on the rooftops of several Palestinian homes in the camp, reported Al Jazeera.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group said that they had opened fire on Israeli forces and detonated several explosive devices against army vehicles. “This unarmed young man did not possess weapons and had nothing to do with any military action,” said the armed group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Some 40,700 Palestinians are registered with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in two camps in Tulkarm. The people in the camp are Palestinian refugees or their descendants, who were forced out or fled their homes during the 1948 war.

UN warns about rise in West Bank settler violence

The United Nations, on Friday (August 4), also warned about the rise in West Bank settler attacks on Palestinian people and property with nearly 600 such incidentsso far this year. A report by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA recorded 591 settler-related incidents in the West Bank, in the first six months of 2023.

The “incidents” have resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both. “That’s an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39-percent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

This comes a year after the UN agency reported that the number of such incidents was the highest since the first started recording them back in 2006. According to Laerke, Palestinian Bedouin and other herding communities were particularly vulnerable. Since the beginning of last year at least 399 herders have been displaced amid settler violence.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law,” said Laerke. He added, “They deepen humanitarian needs due to their impact on livelihoods, food security and access to essential services.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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