Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry and Israel’s military said.

The military told AFP that a man armed with a knife began running towards soldiers operating near the southern West Bank town of Dura on Monday morning.

“Shortly after the identification, the soldiers opened fire on the terrorist and eliminated him,” the military said.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry identified him as 22-year-old Ramzi al-Awawdeh, who it said was killed “by Israeli gunfire at dawn today in the town of Khursa” near Dura.

In a separate incident later Monday morning, the military said it shot and “neutralised” a man who had accelerated his vehicle towards soldiers deployed near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.

Israel’s military sometimes uses the word “neutralise” in cases where someone is killed.

The health ministry said that 31-year-old Abdulrahman Abu al-Rub was shot dead by Israeli troops at the Anab checkpoint near Tulkarem.

Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has surged since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza.

According to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,056 Palestinians — including many militants as well as civilians — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

At least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in the same territory in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli data.