Israeli soldiers have shot dead three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as troops mount more sweeps in the territory following deadly Arab attacks in Israel.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old near Bethlehem.
The Israeli military said he had thrown a petrol bomb at the soldiers, who “used live ammunition in order to stop the immediate threat”.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli military gunfire in Nablus, on a main street near Joseph’s Tomb, the ministry said, referring to a Jewish shrine where Israel carried out repair work on Wednesday after Palestinians had vandalised it.
The ministry identified the man as Mohammed Assaf, 34, a lawyer who worked for a department of the Palestine Liberation Organisation that documents and lobbies against Israeli settlement activity on land Palestinians seek for a state.
An official from the PLO anti-settlement unit said Assaf had been driving his nephews to a nearby school and had stopped on the side of the road to watch events unfold when clashes erupted at the tomb.
A military statement on West Bank operations on Wednesday said an “armed suspect” was hit near Nablus. It was unclear whether it was referring to Assaf.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).