Two Palestinians Shot Dead By Israeli Army In West Bank Raids

The Israeli forces on Thursday shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during a military raid as the Israel-Palestinian conflict continues. The official news agency identified those shot as Jawas Bawata, 58, and Adham Jabarin.

The two were shot in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian media, Bawatqa was a teacher, while Jabarin has been claimed as a fighter by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority.

There were no immediate comments on the end of the Israel troops. Palestinian media also reported that the Israeli forces arrested a local official of the militant group Islamic Jihad in Jenin.

Tensions have soared in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids since last spring, after a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people. Another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year.

Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks.  The Palestinians see them as the further entrenchment of Israel's open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state.

Thursday's deaths take the death count to 17 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B'Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.

Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed.

(With PTI inputs)