Israeli Forces Clash with Palestinians, Killing One near Jericho
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A young man was killed and three young men were injured during an armed clash with Israeli occupation forces who stormed the Aqabat Jaber camp near Jericho on Monday.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of 15-year-old Muhammad Fayez Bilhan, and the injury of two young men with live bullets in the lower extremities, while another was transferred to a hospital due to a live bullet wound in the head, Arab48 reported.
The ministry confirmed that Bilhan was targeted with live bullets in the head, chest, and abdomen, while the Israeli regime army claimed that he was shot for throwing stones at the soldiers. The ministry stated that the number of Palestinian fatalities since the beginning of the year has risen to 96.
Armed clashes erupted between a group of gunmen and Israeli occupation forces in Aqabat Jaber camp, where injuries were reported. Clashes also broke out near Bethlehem, resulting in injuries from Israeli bullets and suffocation of poisonous tear gas.
Local Palestinian sources said that the Israeli occupation forces closed the entrances to Aqabat Jaber camp after storming the camp in large numbers, climbing the roofs of houses, and deploying snipers. An exchange of fire was reported between gunmen and army forces in the camp.
Special forces of the Israeli army stormed the Aqabat Jaber camp, surrounded a number of houses, and arrested five young men for allegedly planning to carry out armed attacks against the occupation forces and settlers.
The Israeli military correspondent for Maariv newspaper, Tal Lev Ram, said that the occupation operation in Aqabat Jabr comes within the framework of an attempt to "arrest wanted persons on suspicion of planning" to carry out operations, considering that "the increasing number of attacks in the Jordan Valley and the emergence of terrorist elements (as he put it) in this sector are additional features of the recent escalation, after relatively calm years."
Army Radio stated that the operation in Aqabat Jaber camp aims to arrest wanted persons claiming that they intend to plan to carry out an operation, claiming that it had nothing to do with the shooting operation that took place in the Jordan Valley last Friday.
Israeli special forces besieged many houses in Aqabat Jabr camp in Jericho, while the occupation sent reinforcements to the camp, which was besieged and completely closed to the movement of Palestinians. The occupation forces fired sound and gas bombs during their raid into the camp in Jericho, while clashes broke out with a group of young men who confronted the incursions of the occupation forces.
In addition, a young man was shot during clashes with the occupation in the town of Al-Khader in the Bethlehem governorate. According to the Red Crescent, a young man was wounded by rubber-coated metal bullets in the hand, during the clashes that centered in the "al-Tal" area, after which he was transferred to a hospital.
The Israeli occupation forces closed the secondary dirt roads near the Hamra military checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley on Monday morning, preventing the movement of Palestinians from the cities of the West Bank to the Jordan Valley and vice versa. The occupation forces closed the checkpoint for the third day in a row, after two settlers were killed and a third seriously wounded in a shooting attack that targeted a vehicle near the "Hamra" settlement in the Jordan Valley.