On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority said that Israeli troops killed at least five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over the previous 24-hour period as the Israeli military continued raids in the territory as part of an operation that was launched in January.
The Palestinian Authority said that five Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli forces in the northern city of Jenin, which has been a focus of the Israeli offensive dubbed “Iron Wall.”
The PA said that its own forces killed a Palestinian man who was previously wanted. The PA claimed that the man had previously opened fire at Palestinian security forces. Before Israel launched Iron Wall, the PA had been conducting its own operations against resistance groups in Jenin.
The PA said that the 60-year-old woman who was killed was shot by IDF troops at a checkpoint. Haaretz recently reported that the Israeli military expanded its “open fire” orders in the West Bank, which has led to an uptick in the killing of civilians, including children.
The Israeli military said that it killed two Palestinians during a gun battle at a house in Jenin. The IDF was also active in the southern city of Hebron, where its forces wounded a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old with gunfire.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli settlers terrorized civilians in a village near the central city of Ramallah. “A group of illegal settlers attacked the village of Umm Safa in Ramallah and burned three vehicles,” municipal chief Marwan Sabah told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. “The situation is tense in the village, where Palestinians live in constant fear due to the escalation of settler attacks.”
Settlers have been emboldened by the Israeli military’s operations, which have involved similar tactics seen in Gaza, including the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Jenin and Nur Shams refugee camps.
The Washington Post recently reported that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told a settler leader that Israel must “behave exactly like Gaza” in the West Bank.
