Amir Abu Khadijeh, 25, was shot in the head in the city of Tulkarem, the Palestinian health ministry says.
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man during a raid on the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and Israeli police said, as Israeli incursions into the territory show no signs of ceasing during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 25-year-old Amir Abu Khadijeh was shot in the head in the city of Tulkarem on Thursday. Large crowds took to the streets to protest the killing of Abu Khadijeh when his body reached the hospital, Palestinian media reported.
A statement from the Israeli Border Police said its undercover unit was involved in a raid in the early hours of Thursday to arrest a Palestinian man suspected of involvement in several shootings. The troops surrounded the house he was in and fired on the man after he aimed a weapon at them, border police claimed.
The Tulkarem Brigade, one of several new armed groups to emerge in the West Bank over the past year, said Abu Khadijeh was one of its founders and described the killing as an “assassination”.
Palestinian Fatah movement activist Murad Droubi told local media that Israeli troops stormed Shufa, an area in Tulkarem, and closed the main entrance to vehicles and residents before surrounding the house where Abu Khadija was hiding.
According to Palestinian media, Israeli troops also arrested the owner of the apartment where Abu Khadijeh was killed.
Thursday was the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in the Palestinian territories.
In previous years, during Ramadan, Israeli police attacked Palestinians who had gathered around Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. Ramadan coincides with the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter this year.
In 2021, the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem has been the catalyst for widespread Palestinian protests across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
Raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli security forces during Ramadan further heightened tensions, and four days later an 11-day Israeli assault on Gaza began, ostensibly in response to rockets fired by Hamas at Israel.
On Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged to de-escalate the violence at a meeting attended by US, Egyptian and Jordanian delegations in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a spate of confrontations in recent months, with near-daily Israeli military raids and escalating violence by Jewish settlers amid a spate of attacks by Palestinians.
Over the past year, Israeli forces have killed more than 250 Palestinians in the West Bank, including combatants and civilians. More than 40 Israelis and three Ukrainians have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.
