Israeli forces have shot a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank in the midst of a strong escalation of violence, after the appeal of the Minister of Finance of the Pays Bezalel Smotrich this week to take over most of the territory.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the dead as Ahmed Shehadeh, 57, saying that he was killed on Friday by “occupation balls” near the al-Murabba’a control point south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
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The Palestinian press agency WAFA cited in the middle of Ahmed, director of the Crescent-Rouge Emergency and Ambulance Center in Naplus, saying that Israeli soldiers prevented its crew from reaching the shooting site.
The Israeli army said in a statement that a man had “launched a suspicious object” to the soldiers operating near the control point, after which he “eliminated”.
Further south, the troops carried out several raids in Bethlehem, with soldiers entering the region of Khalayel al-Louz in the southeast of the city and setting up a military control point, according to Wafa.
The press agency also reported raids on the villages of Artas and Al-Ubayyat, where soldiers have demolished posters of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
In parallel, Israeli settlers brandishing knives and sticks stormed the village of Khallet al-Dabaa in the region of Masafer Yatta south of Hebron, injuring 20 people, including a three-month-old baby.
Palestinian activist Osama Al-Makhmara told the Anadolu news agency that injuries were bruising and fractures to stab injuries, saying nine people had been transported to the hospital for treatment.
Four months ago, the Israeli authorities demolished 25 houses, agricultural structures and water wells in the village, citing a “construction without license”.
Israel’s desire to extend the illegal colonies in the West Bank was renewed on the momentum by the Minister of Far -Right Finance and the head of the Smotrich settlers, who said Wednesday that Israel should annex around 82% of the West Bank.
Smotrich said that he wanted “a maximum territory and a minimum (Palestinian) population” to be carried under Israeli sovereignty, “to remove, once and for all, a Palestinian state of the agenda”.
More than 700,000 settlers, or 10% of the Israeli population, live in 150 illegal colonies and 128 outposts spread over the West Bank and occupying Jerusalem.
Xavier Abu Eid, former communications director of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Tel Aviv Tribune that Israeli flags and colonies were now visible within 30-40 km (18-25 miles) between Ramallah and Nablus.
“Obviously, the cards that have been presented by Smotrich are designed on the ground by settlers and the Israeli army,” he said.
‘Too little, too late’
Smotrich launched its maximum campaign while France, Great Britain, Belgium, Australia and Canada have committed to officially recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month.
The diplomatic thrust comes while Israel sets up its large-scale offensive on Gaza City as part of the buyout plans for the entire enclave, while accelerating its annexing plans of the West Bank in the background.
Friday, the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, announced on X that her country would join the growing international campaign for a two -state solution, which is led by France and Saudi Arabia. She called it “the most important international effort in years to create the conditions for a two -state solution”.
The day before, foreign ministers of the Arab League in Cairo have adopted a resolution saying that peaceful coexistence in the Middle East cannot be carried out while Israel “pronounces implicit threats to occupy or annex the Arab lands”.
The League said that any sustainable regulation should be based on a two -state solution and on the Arab peace initiative 2022, which offers a complete normalization of relations in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal of the territories it occupied in 1967.
But the OLP ABU Eid told Tel Aviv Tribune that time was exhausted. “Many people believe that there is no more solution to two states to speak, and perhaps this late international response recognizing the state of Palestine is once again considered too little, too late,” he said.
Mass arrests
While Israel catches more Palestinian territory in the West Bank, its forces accelerated their massive arrest campaign, holding at least 70 people in dozens of villages during last week.
Wafa reported arrests in the city of Haris, near Salfit, where the village chief Omar Samara, deputy chief of the village council, Tayseer Kulaib, and a “large number of villagers” were detained.
The troops also arrested a man in the city of Qalqilya when they were descent into family homes.
The Israeli Palestinians’ prison conditions have long been described by rights defending and degrading rights, with negligence and medical abuse reports.
The Palestinian prisoners’ media office published a declaration on Bilal Barghouti, a 39 -year -old man of Beit Rima purging a perpetuity imprisonment in the prison of Israel Gilboa, describing the conditions under which he was kept as “slow murder and systematic torture”.
The former detainees said that Barghouti, who suffered from a range of chronic diseases, has lost a lot of weight, was prohibited from visits and subjected to blows, insults and slander with hot water.
On Friday, the Palestinian prisoner company said on Friday that Israeli forces had made more than 19,000 arrests – including at least 585 women and 1,550 children – through occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the start of the war against Gaza.
He indicated that the figure does not include arrests in Gaza itself, where the number is considered in the thousands, according to its declaration made by the WAFA news agency.
The company also pointed out that 77 Palestinians died in police custody, including 46 from Gaza. The bodies of 74 of those who died remain retained by Israel, alongside at least 85 other prisoners whose remains are kept from their family.
