Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in occupied West Bank

Rasa - Israeli military forces have fatally shot a young Palestinian in the West Bank amid simmering tensions in the occupied territories.

News ID: 426433

Date: 10 January 2017 - 22:26

RNA - Witnesses said Israeli soldiers stormed al-Fari’ah refugee camp, located 12 kilometers south of Jenin, early on Tuesday, violently breaking into the house of Mohammed al-Salehi before killing the 33-year-old former prisoner, Arabic-language Safa news agency reported.

Violent clashes broke out in the aftermath of the raid, with Israeli forces arresting at least three local residents. Those arrested were later identified as Mahmoud Jabbarin, Qais Nash’at and Mahmoud Nazmi Abu Hassan.

The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed tensions ever since Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

More than 270 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of October that year, when the tensions escalated.

Israel mulls more land grab

Meanwhile, Israel is planning to build hundreds more illegal settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories in clear defiance of a recent UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to the regime’s settlement expansions.

The Arabic-language Palestine al-Aan news agency reported that the so-called Jerusalem al-Quds Local Planning and Building Committee will discuss the construction of 390 housing units in the Shu’afat neighborhood of East Jerusalem al-Quds during a session on Wednesday.

The report added that the committee had deferred the decision over the past few weeks in the wake of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s blistering speech on Israel’s land grab policy as well as UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

Resolution 2334 demands Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

It also states that Israel’s expansionist policy has “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Israeli settlements have been a major obstacle to efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

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