Four Palestinians were killed in two days, Wednesday June 1 and Thursday June 2, in incidents in the occupied West Bank. Three of them were killed between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening during Israeli army operations in this territory, occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state.
Odeh Mohammed Odeh, 17, who was injured by an Israeli army bullet in the village of Al-Madia, in the Ramallah area, died of his wounds on Thursday evening, according to the Palestinian Ministry of health. The Israeli army claimed on Twitter that it fired at suspects who threw incendiary bottles at soldiers.
Earlier in the day, 29-year-old Palestinian Ayman Muhaisen was killed by Israeli security forces in a refugee camp near Bethlehem, the Palestinian health ministry said. According to the Israeli army, soldiers who operated in the camp to arrest a Palestinian “suspected of terrorist activities” were the target of jets“explosive devices and blocks of stones”. They responded by firing live ammunition.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Israeli army destroyed in Yabad, in the north of the West Bank, the house of the family of the author of the attack which had killed five people in the city of Bnei Brak, in Israel, end of March. During this operation, “violent riots broke out” and soldiers, targeted with Molotov cocktails and gunfire, responded and fired live ammunition, according to the military. Six Palestinians were injured and one of them, Bilal Awad Kabha, died of his injuries in hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Finally, a fourth person was shot on Wednesday morning. According the Israeli army, this Palestinian woman had approached a soldier with a knife, near the Palestinian refugee camp of Al Aroub, in the south of the West Bank.
In recent weeks, after a series of attacks in Israel, some of which were perpetrated by Palestinians, the Israeli army has stepped up operations in the West Bank. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh accused Israel of being behind the “the recent escalation” tensions and called on the United States to put pressure on the Israelis to end these operations “which risk dragging the whole region into violence”.