Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says, marking the latest bloodshed in spiralling violence that comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the region.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The Palestinian health ministry said the man, Nassim Abu Fouda, 26, was shot in Hebron, often a centre of clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked in recent days, with an Israeli military raid on a militant stronghold in the West Bank city of Jenin last week killing 10, most of them militants, and a Palestinian shooting attack in an east Jerusalem Jewish settlement that killed seven Israelis.
Unrest has continued in the ensuing days, prompting Israel to approve a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians and ratcheting up tensions just as Blinken begins meetings with leaders later in the day.
The violence comes after months of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank, which were launched after a wave of Palestinians attacks against Israelis in the spring of 2022 that killed 19 people.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, making it the deadliest year in those territories since 2004, according to figures from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
Read the article by Tia Goldenberg in the Mandurah Mail.