West Bank: Palestinian killed by Israeli settler amid surge in attacks
An armed Israeli settler killed a young Palestinian on Saturday night in the occupied West Bank province of Qalqilia, according to Wafa news agency.
Palestinian security sources said Karam Ali Salman, 18, a resident of Qusin village near the city of Nablus, was fatally shot by the Israeli settler in "unclear circumstances".
The Palestinian health ministry said that Salman was killed by "the Israeli occupation near the settlement of Kedumim". The minsitry said that Kedumim was built on privately-owned Palestinian land.
Israel's army said a "civilian security team" shot a person "armed with a handgun" near the settlement in the northern West Bank.
Meanwile, a Palestinian succumbed to his wounds on Sunday, three days after a deadly Israeli raid on the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank, the ministry of health announced.
Omar Tariq Ali Al-Saadi, 24, was shot by Israeli troops on Thursday, when 9 other Palestinians were killed, including an elderly woman, and 20 civilians were wounded, 3 of them seriously.
The violence escalated when a shooting at a settlement in the Silwan neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday wounded two Israeli settlers, and a day earlier a Palestinian man killed seven people outside a building used as a synagogue in the settlement of Neve Yaakov in East Jerusalem.
144 attacks in one night
Salman's killing coincides with a surge in violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with 144 incidents reported on Saturday. According to Palestinian official Ghassan Daghlas, settlers destroyed 120 vehicles by throwing stones at them south of Nablus, burned six vehicles in the town of Majdal Bani Fadel and attacked 22 shops in Hawara.
The violence has been condoned by the new far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, with incitement from his ultranationalist cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of January.
Last year, more Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem than in any single calendar year since the Second Intifada.
At least 220 people died in Israeli attacks across the occupied territories in 2022, including 48 children. Of the total death toll, 167 were from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 53 were from the Gaza Strip.
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