Israeli forces shoot and kill Palestinian man in alleged car ramming incident

An Israeli soldier shot dead a Palestinian man on Thursday who the military said deliberately tried to ram his car into soldiers in the occupied West Bank, the latest incident to take place this week in the run-up to the inauguration of a new Israeli government.

“[The] assailant drove at a high speed towards [Israeli] soldiers adjacent to a military post… southwest of Hebron,” an army spokesperson said in a statement.

“The assailant hit one of the soldiers, while another fired towards the assailant and neutralised him," the statement added, using a common Israeli euphemism to indicate that the Palestinian had been killed.

 The spokesperson said one soldier was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.

The Palestinian Authority's ministry of health confirmed that the slain man was Palestinian, without identifying him.

The incident comes a day after a 15-year-old Palestinian child was shot dead by Israeli forces during an arrest raid in the Fawwar refugee camp in the southern West Bank.

On Tuesday, a 21-year-old soldier was killed during a raid near Jenin when a stone hurled from a rooftop struck his head.

Witnesses said Israeli troops arrested 11 people in connection with the killing, while local media reported that four Palestinians were wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets during the raid.

After more than 500 days of political deadlock and three consecutive elections, a new Israeli government was poised to be sworn in on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz agreed to a three-year coalition government last month, with cabinet posts split between their allies.

The "unity" government has pledged to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, a move considered illegal under international law.

This week's developments come ahead of the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced during the establishment of the state of Israel.