JENIN: The Palestinian health ministry announced Tuesday that a Palestinian died from bullet wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli operation after another man was killed elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
According to a ministry statement, Amjad Aref Jaas “died from critical wounds to the abdomen sustained from live occupation (Israeli) fire” in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The 48-year-old’s death brings the total number of Palestinians killed in Monday’s hours-long raid by Israeli troops to six, according to health officials. According to the military, eight Israeli security personnel were injured in Jenin.
Jaas’ body wrapped in a Palestinian flag
Jaas’ body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag in a Jenin mosque in front of dozens of mourners, including masked gunmen. After the firefight ended on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli troops had killed a 20-year-old man near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. According to the ministry, Zakaria Mohammed al-Zaoul was “martyred in the town of Husan by live occupation (Israeli) bullets to the head.” According to the Israeli military, troops were “on routine activity” in town when “a suspect hurled Molotov cocktails” at them. It went on to say that the soldiers responded with live fire.
The militant group Islamic Jihad identified Zaoul as a member in a statement. Military personnel fired live fire, tear gas, and stun grenades amid conflicts with young Palestinians, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. The fatalities are the most recent in a wave of violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has claimed the lives of at least 166 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian, and an Italian this year. Since 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank, and its military forces routinely conduct patrols and raids in Palestinian towns and cities.
