Two Palestinians dead amid escalation in Israeli violence

A 20-year-old Palestinian, Mateen Dabaya, was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday during a raid on Jenin city and camp, WAFA news agency reported.

Special Israeli military units carried out the attack which sparked intense clashes with Palestinians. The report added that Israeli soldiers fired live bullets at Palestinians, killing Dabaya and wounding six others, including Abdullah Abu al-Teen, a doctor working at the Khalil Suleiman hospital.

The Palestinian doctor was severely injured while he was trying to save one of the casualties shot by Israeli forces. Wissam Abu Bakr, director of Jenin Governmental Hospital, said the injured doctor is in critical condition.

The raid follows the killing of an Israeli soldier on Saturday at a checkpoint near Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp, which was followed by a massive manhunt for the suspected attacker, who remains at large.

The brutal attacks in Jenin have also targeted medical aid workers. Mahmoud Sa’adi, the head of the Emergency Department of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Jenin, said on Friday that the occupation forces have directly shot and injured two aid workers who were trying to transfer one of the injured Palestinians to the hospital.

Ibin Sina Hospital in Jenin also said that one of the emergency workers have been injured by a shot in the neck and transferred to the hospital.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian prisoner succumbed to his injuries on Friday at a hospital in occupied territories. Mohammad al-Saeed Ghawadra, 17, from the refugee camp of Jenin had been detained on September 4 in the Jordan Valley.

He was suffering from severe and deep burns covering 90% of his body. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), Ghawadra was the 232nd slain Palestinian prisoner since 1967.

Flare-ups have also been reported across the occupied West Bank as Palestinians confronted Israeli troops accompanied by settlers.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied territories since the start of the year, including 51 in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s three-day onslaught in August.

Israeli forces continue their near-daily raid-and-arrest operations in various parts of the West Bank, wounding or killing Palestinians. Such raids are carried out while Israeli settlers also conduct acts of violence against Palestinians and their property.

Settler violence is rampant in the occupied Palestinian territories. The acts of violence and vandalism, known as price tag attacks which are committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, have risen in recent years.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute Israeli settlers for their assaults on Palestinians and their property and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.

Many Palestinians have also sustained injuries or lost their lives in incidents due to allegations that they attempted stabbing or car-ramming attacks against Israeli settlers and forces.

As many as 74 Palestinians, including 37 children, have been killed so far this year, many as a result of the use of lethal force by the Israeli authorities in a manner described by the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Territories as a violation of international human rights law.