Israeli forces kill Palestinians in raid on occupied West Bank city | News from the occupied West Bank

According to the Ministry of Health, a young man was killed and two people were injured in an attack in the city of Aqqaba.

Israeli soldiers have killed at least one person in a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Aqqaba, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The body of the Palestinian, identified as 25-year-old Adham Zayed Ezzat Masri, is still in the hands of Israeli forces, the ministry said Saturday after the dawn attack.

Aqqaba is located in the north of Tubas Governorate, which is in northwestern Palestine.

The man was killed after his family’s home in Aqqaba was surrounded by soldiers, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which also reported that a 50-year-old Palestinian was wounded in the chest by live bullets and was taken to hospital in critical condition .

Another 49-year-old person suffered bruises, the agency said.

The director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association in Tubas, Kamal Bani Odeh, said Israeli forces arrested two more men during the raid, according to Wafa.

The Israeli military sent a number of vehicles accompanied by a bulldozer from checkpoints in eastern Aqqaba to surround several houses and make arrests, sources told Al Jazeera.

They said there were armed clashes within the city.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the reports.

Arrests Amid Increasing Violence

Israeli forces arrested at least 18 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank from Friday night to Saturday morning, according to the Commission on Prisoner and Ex-Prisoner Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

Since the Gaza War began in October 2023, violence in the region has increased sharply, with almost daily raids by Israeli forces resulting in thousands of arrests.

There were also regular firefights between security forces and Palestinian fighters during Israeli army raids.

According to the Ramallah-based Ministry of Health, Israeli soldiers or settlers killed more than 760 Palestinians in the West Bank during that period.

In August, the Israeli military launched a major offensive in northern areas of the West Bank – the largest in two decades – sealing off areas such as Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.