RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories —
Israeli occupation forces shot dead four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Tuesday, Palestinian officials said.
اضافة اعلان
Israel has executed an escalating campaign of
violence in the West Bank this year, with near daily raids in which more than a
hundred Palestinians have been killed.
In Kafr Ein, near Ramallah, two brothers were killed
by Israeli fire, the Palestinian health ministry said.
A third man was shot in the head by Israeli forces
in Beit Ummar, near Hebron, the ministry said.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa named the dead
man as Mufid Mahmud Khalil, 44, from the Beit Ummar area.
The health ministry identified the dead in Kafr Ein
as brothers Jawad Abdulrahman Rimawi, 22, and Dhafer Abdul Rahman Rimawi, 21.
Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Hussein
Al-Sheikh described the killing of the two brothers as an “execution in cold
blood”.
A fourth death involved an unidentified
Palestinian who Israeli forces shot and killed in Ramallah following a car chase, according
to eyewitnesses.
Wafa reported that Palestinian ambulances were not
allowed to reach the location of the shooting, which was totally sealed off by
Israeli forces.
The man was accused of running over an Israeli
soldier several kilometers away from where he was shot.
Boiling point
On Monday, the UN envoy for
Middle East peace, Tor Wennesland, warned the situation in the West Bank was
“reaching a boiling point”.
“High levels of violence in the occupied West Bank
and Israel in recent months, including attacks against Israeli and Palestinian
civilians, increased use of arms, and settler-related violence, have caused
grave human suffering,” he told the
UN Security Council.
This week, Israel announced it had made more than
3,000 arrests in 2022.
The UN says more than 125 Palestinians have been
killed across the West Bank this year.
Israel has occupied the territory since the 1967
Arab-Israeli War. An estimated 475,000 Jewish settlers now live in the
territory, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians, in communities considered
illegal under international law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states
that an occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies”,
Tuesday’s violence came as veteran hawk
Benjamin Netanyahu continued negotiations to form what could be the most right-wing
government in Israel’s history, following a general election earlier this
month.
On Friday, Netanyahu signed an agreement with
lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir that promised the far-right firebrand the new post of
national security minister, with responsibility for the border police in the
West Bank.
Ben-Gvir, known for anti-Arab rhetoric, has
repeatedly called on police and soldiers to use more force when confronting
Palestinian unrest.
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