On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near a shrine in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials. This incident marks another tragic episode in the ongoing cycle of violence that has engulfed the region.
The months of fighting have seen a significant increase in casualties and show no signs of abating, making it the most severe violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
The shooting occurred as Israeli forces were escorting Israeli worshippers, including the Israeli police chief and the head of the local Jewish settler council, to a site known as Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus, which has been a longstanding flashpoint for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Nablus has become a central point of violence in the current escalation.
According to the Israeli military, during the visit, suspects opened fire and threw explosives, rocks, and burning tires at the troops, who responded with gunfire.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the victim as 19-year-old Badr al-Masri and reported that three others were treated for injuries.
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank intensified last year when Israel launched near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas in response to a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis. The violence has escalated this year, with more than 150 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the beginning of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, as per a tally by The Associated Press.
Israel contends that most of those killed were militants, but there have also been fatalities among stone-throwing youths who were protesting army raids and others not directly involved in the confrontations. In the same period, at least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Israel maintains that its regular raids across the West Bank are necessary to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. On the other hand, the Palestinians view the violence as a natural response to 56 years of occupation, which includes increased settlement construction by the Israeli government and heightened violence by Jewish settlers.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, during the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians seek these territories for their envisioned independent state.