Tel Aviv: Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank early Thursday. He was the third Palestinian to be killed in more than 24 hours at a time of rising tensions in the Middle East.
The Israeli military said forces operating at the Dhisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem opened fire after pelting stones with rocks and makeshift bombs. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 29-year-old Ayman Mahiesen had died.
Late on Wednesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Yabed, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to destroy the family home of a slain Palestinian attacker who killed five people in the Israeli town of Beni Brak in March was.
The military said the Palestinians attacked the soldiers with stones and fire bombs, and the soldiers exchanged bullets with Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 24-year-old Bilal Kabaha was killed. Hamas said he was one of its fighters.
Videos released by the Israeli military show soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion rippling through the three-story building, lighting up the night sky.
Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinian terrorists killed or captured, saying it acts as a deterrent, despite an internal military report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. . Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment.
Israeli rights group Hamoked said the attacker’s parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the house. It filed a petition against the demolition which was rejected by the Supreme Court of Israel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman in the southern West Bank, who they say reached them with a knife.
The West Bank is home to about 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel’s annexation of the region in the 1967 Middle East war.
Palestinians want the West Bank to be a core part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago.
In recent months, Palestinians have launched a wave of attacks against Israel that has killed 19 people. The military has launched an almost daily operation in the West Bank, which it says is aimed at dismantling terrorist networks to prevent more attacks.
Conflicts at a holy site in Jerusalem and the killing of a prominent Palestinian-American journalist have added to the tension. Palestinians and eyewitnesses say Shirin Abu Akleh was killed in an Israeli gunfight, while Israel says it is not clear whether soldiers or Palestinian gunmen opened fire.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of this year. It does not differentiate between civilians, terrorists and those killed after carrying out deadly attacks.
The ministry’s count includes Abu Akleh, as well as an unarmed woman and two men who appear to have stood by during the conflict.