RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Two
Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli forces in the
West Bank on Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
The Palestinian health ministry said Mahdi Mohammad
Hashash, 15, died of “serious wounds caused by shrapnel ... during the
occupation’s incursion into Nablus”, the largest city in the northern West
Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said three others were
wounded in the clashes.
The Israeli military said troops had been in the
area to secure “the entrance of worshippers to Joseph’s Tomb”, believed to be
the last resting place of the biblical patriarch Joseph and a flashpoint for
West Bank violence.
It said “shots were heard” at the site, and troops
fired “towards a terrorist who placed a bomb in the area”.
“A hit was identified,” it added, without directly
commenting on Hashash’s death.
The
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement, issued a
statement claiming Hashash as one of its members.
A Jewish settler organization told AFP that eight
Israeli politicians — current lawmakers and others elected on November 1 who
have yet to be sworn in — were visiting Joseph’s Tomb.
The group included members of veteran hawk Benjamin
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and allies from the extreme right Religious
Zionism bloc.
Hours later, the ministry said Rafaat Issa, 29, had
been killed by Israeli fire in a separate incident west of the city of Jenin.
The official
Palestinian news agency Wafa said Issa was shot near the Israeli-built
separation wall that runs along the West Bank border.
There was no immediate information on the violence
in the area, but Palestinians have previously been killed while trying to cross
the barrier.
Hashash was buried later Wednesday, with family and
friends packing the Nablus morgue as the funeral procession began.
The Palestinian office of religious sites considers
Joseph’s Tomb to be an Islamic archaeological monument.
Israeli forces organize monthly escorted pilgrimages
to the site but prohibit civilians entering on their own.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
About 475,000 illegal Jewish settlers currently live
in the West Bank alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians.
This year is on track to be the deadliest in the territory
since 2015.
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