Three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, officials and the Palestinian Ministry of Health have said.
Two men, Hamza Maqbool and Khairi Shaheen, were killed during an early Friday morning raid in Nablus. A third, named as Abdul Jawwad Saleh, was shot by Israeli forces in the village of Umm Safa, which neighbours Ramallah, later on Friday.
The Nablus raid was described by some locals as an “invasion”, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher.
Israeli forces raided the city in search of the two men, one confirmed to be affiliated with al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said Fisher, reporting from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The men were tracked down to a house in old Nablus. Israeli forces used loudspeakers to ask the men to surrender, Fisher said.
They met a return of improvised explosive devices, which prompted the Israeli army to call for more reinforcements, he added.
“It appears there was some sort of confrontation between the two men in the house and the Israeli army, and the two men in the house were shot dead,” he said.
The men were suspected of carrying out a shooting attack against police this week, according to Israel’s military.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement its crews “transferred the bodies of two martyrs from the Old City of Nablus”.
Israeli forces cordoned off the house before fatally shooting the men, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Three others were also injured, Al Jazeera TV reported.
Meanwhile, in Ramallah, the 24-year-old Saleh was shot during a protest by Palestinians against an illegal Israeli settlement outpost, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinians said the settlers thres stones at them, and that Israeli soldiers at the scene opened fire, shooting Saleh.
The Israeli military said it was checking the report.
The incidents come less than two days after an Israeli army raid in the Jenin refugee camp that killed 12 Palestinians and wounded 140 others, 30 of them seriously.
The raid, which forced thousands to flee the camp which was left in rubble and ruin, was the largest Israeli attack in the West Bank in more than 20 years.
Israel has been conducting near-daily raids and killing Palestinians in the West Bank since June 2021 in an attempt to crack down on a growing armed resistance.
