Four Palestinians Killed by Israeli Soldiers
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Four Palestinians were killed after allegedly wounding Israeli soldiers in separate incidents Friday, the latest Israeli violence in more than two months of clashes that has left more than a hundred Palestinians dead.
In the first incident, which took place overnight in the flashpoint city of Hebron, two Palestinians were killed after they allegedly stabbed an Israeli soldier.
Hebron, a city where 500 right-wing Israeli settlers live behind barbed wire fences in the middle of 200,000 Palestinians, has been one of the front lines in the wave of tensions.
The two later incidents took place in the northern occupied West Bank near settlements north of Ramallah.
Two Israeli soldiers were injured near the settlement of Ofra, with the driver who was accused of driving at them shot dead, an army statement said.
“A Palestinian rammed his vehicle at IDF [Israel Forces] soldiers” it said. “In response forces on site fired at the assailant.”
The villagers rushed to collect the body, apparently worried that the Israeli army would seize it and refuse to return it to the families, an AFP journalist on site reported.
Israel has refused to return a large number of the bodies of alleged assailants in recent weeks.
Palestinian security sources identified the dead attacker as 19-year-old Anas Basam Hamad from near Ofra.
The soldiers were taken to hospital, where medics described their condition as not life threatening.
That attack came just hours after another some 20 kilometers away in which a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before being shot dead.
“The assailant exited his vehicle and stabbed the soldier in the neck” at a checkpoint, a statement said.
While recent violence has focused on the West Bank – where the international community considers all Israeli settlements illegal – seven people were injured in the Gaza Strip coastal enclave Friday, medical sources said.
Unusually, two Palestinians were wounded by tank fire after entering the no-go zone close to the border fence east of the city of Khan Younes.
After warning shots were ignored, “forces fired live fire and tank rounds” and the suspects retreated, an army spokeswoman said.
Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP the two wounded were in moderate condition.
Since Oct. 1, almost daily clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers have killed 109 Palestinians, 17 Israelis, a 1948 Palestinian, an American and an Eritrean. More than half of the Palestinians have been alleged assailants, and others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during protests.
