Israeli troops have killed a Palestinian during a raid in the occupied West Bank in what the army describes as return fire against an attacker but which his family called an unprovoked shooting.
The Islamic Jihad militant group, a focus of an Israeli crackdown in the West Bank, claimed Tayeh as a member and said he had died “during clashes”. It did not elaborate.
As part of near-nightly security sweeps mounted after a series of lethal Palestinian street attacks in Israeli cities, the army carried out arrests and searches in several locations.
The slain man, Younis Tayeh, 21, had left the family home in Tubas village to try to find his uncle after hearing that he had been detained, Tayeh’s twin brother Hussein told Reuters.
“I asked him not to cross the street, as a soldier could be taking aim. As soon as he crossed the street he (a soldier) immediately shot him,” Tayeh said. “I tried to reach him but he (the soldier) aimed two bullets at me, so I couldn’t go out.”
The army said in a statement that an improvised explosive device was thrown and shots were fired at soldiers, who returned fire. There were no Israeli casualties. One person had been arrested in Tubas and 24 elsewhere, it said.
Read the article by Raneen Sawafta in The Canberra Times.