JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager on Wednesday during clashes that erupted in a refugee camp in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest deadly incident as violence escalates in the territory. busy.
The ministry identified the Palestinian as 18-year-old Osama Adawi. He was among more than 100 Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far in 2022, the worst spasm of violence in seven years.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Adawi was hit in the abdomen by a bullet in Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank. The Israeli military said troops opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were throwing stones at Israeli motorists on Route 60, the territory’s main north-south thoroughfare.
Tensions have risen across the West Bank and East Jerusalem as Israeli forces continue to search for Palestinian gunmen who recently carried out two shootings against soldiers. Thousands of Jewish worshipers are also flocking to Jerusalem to mark the week-long Sukkot holiday, putting the city on edge.
As night fell on Wednesday, clashes erupted in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, as Palestinians violently protested the heavy Israeli police presence.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said President Mahmoud Abbas was pursuing “intensive contacts” to defuse the situation and warned that Israeli provocations would “bring the region to the brink of an explosion”.
In East Jerusalem, Palestinian shops and businesses have closed in protest at Israeli police raids in the area that have sparked violent clashes between police and Palestinian protesters.
Police combed Shuafat, a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem, for a suspect in a deadly shooting at a checkpoint on Saturday that killed a soldier. For days, officers set up checkpoints and deployed groups of armed officers to interrogate residents. The checkpoints obstructed the entry and exit points of the area, disrupting the daily life of the inhabitants.
The general strike was called to protest against the repression. Schools and shops have closed across East Jerusalem, including in the Old City, whose colorful shops catering to tourists and locals are generally buzzing.
“Showing solidarity with Shuafat means more than a daily income,” said Anan Sabah, a butcher in the Old City. “The camp has been closed and cordoned off for days. We are closed to say that it is a collective punishment.
Tensions are fueled by months-long night raids by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, which began after a spate of attacks on Israelis earlier this year. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, making this the deadliest year since 2015. Most of those killed were activists, Israel said, but some local youths protesting the raids as well as civilians were also killed in violence.
The raids have sparked a series of shootings in recent weeks against Israelis in the West Bank, including one near the Palestinian city of Nablus on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier.
The Israeli army said it had closed some roads leading in and out of the city and set up roadblocks in its search for the gunmen. Despite the tensions, he said he would still allow and escort Jewish worshipers to visit a Jewish shrine in Nablus that has been a hotbed of violence.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians seek these territories for a future independent state.
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.