Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen and injure two others amid soaring tensions in West Bank where two British sisters were shot dead days ago
- Mohammed Fayez Balhan, 15, was killed by Israeli army fire at a refugee camp
- It comes one day after funeral of British-Israeli sisters shot dead on Friday
- Violence continues days after Israeli police and Palestinians clashed at holy site
Israeli forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and injured two others in a raid on a refugee camp near Jericho in the occupied West Bank on Monday – the latest escalation in the region following violence at a holy site in Jerusalem last week.
In a brief statement earlier today, the Palestinian health ministry said teenager Mohammed Fayez Balhan was killed ‘by occupation (Israeli) bullets in Jericho’, and ‘two people were injured by live bullets in the lower extremities’ and taken to hospital.
The Israeli army said its forces were operating in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho, without providing further details. A request for comment from AP was not returned.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that clashes erupted when Israeli forces entered the camp and surrounded several houses, arresting five individuals during the raid.
The attack in the Palestinian refugee camp took place just one day removed from the funeral of two British-Israeli sisters who were killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched to an evacuated settlement in the West Bank – a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied Palestinian lands despite international opposition.
Both incidents come as violence continues to spiral following clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian Muslim worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque – a holy site for both Jews and Muslims – in Jerusalem’s old town last week amid Jewish Passover celebrations and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mourners chant anti-Israeli slogans as they march with the body of Palestinian teenager Mohamed Fayez Balhan, 15, in Jericho in the occupied West Bank on April 10, 2023, ahead of his funeral after he was killed during a Israeli raid in the nearby Aqabat Jaber camp
Relatives react during the funeral of a Palestinian who was killed during an Israeli raid, near Jericho in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank, April 10, 2023
Relatives of 15-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Bilhan shed tears nearby the body of him at the morgue of Jericho Hospital
Israeli settlers march towards the outpost of Eviatar, near the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on April 10, 2023
Family members mourn during the funeral of two British-Israeli sisters, Maia and Rina Dee, at a cemetery in the Jewish settlement of Kfar Etzion in the occupied West Bank, Sunday, April 9, 2023
Maia (left) and Rina Dee, sisters who were killed in a terrorist shooting attack in the West Bank on April 7, 2023
Rabbi Leo Dee, 51, (pictured) the father of two British sisters who were murdered in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank on Friday broke down in tears as he paid tribute to his ‘beautiful angels’ at their funeral
British-Israeli sisters Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, were killed in a shooting by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank near the Hamra settlement, 30 miles north of Jerusalem, on Friday.
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Their mother, Lucy, 45, who was travelling with them during the attack, remains in a critical condition.
The Dee family was originally from London but moved to Efrat in the West Bank nine years ago.
Mourners, including school friends of the sisters, gathered at the funeral in the settlement of Kfar Etzion in the West Bank and sang songs of grief under in the cemetery’s prayer hall.
In an emotional tribute, Rabbi Dee described his daughters as ‘flames’, saying they will ‘bring more light into the world’ after their deaths.
Israeli police and armed forces are escorting several Israeli officials and thousands of nationalist Jewish settlers on a march to Eviatar – an unauthorised Israeli settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous government in 2021.
Visits to Eviatar were officially banned by the military since its evacuation, but that prohibition has been loosely enforced in recent months.
Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the most religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history and wants to press on with establishing more Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, much to the disdain of Palestinian officials.
Several members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – both West Bank settlers – and at least 20 members of Israel’s parliament were expected to take part in the march.
Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City for second time on Wednesday, witnesses said
People clear the carpet after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday
An image on social media appeared to show worshippers with their hands cuffed behind their backs and laying the ground after Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque
Muslim worshippers perform Friday prayers outside the Dome of Rock Mosque at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have soared following last week’s police raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The hilltop shrine is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Jews, it is known as the Temple Mount, their faith’s holiest site and the place where two temples stood in antiquity.
For Muslims, it is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
Dozens of Jewish visitors entered the site on Monday escorted by Israeli police for a second consecutive day. These tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency in recent years, raising fears by Palestinians that Israel may partition the site. Israel insists it has no intention of changing the longstanding arrangement that permits Jewish visits, but not worship, at the Muslim-administered shrine.
Last week, Palestinians barricaded themselves inside al-Aqsa with stones and firecrackers, demanding the right to pray there overnight, something Israel has in the past only allowed during the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Police removed them by force, detaining hundreds and leaving dozens injured.
The violence at the shrine was followed by rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and Syria starting Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes targeting those areas. Recent days have also seen Palestinian attacks that killed two Israelis and an Italian tourist.
Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 people in Israel since the start of the year, including one soldier. At least 92 Palestinians and have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. It has built dozens of settlements in the territory that are now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers.
Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem for their future independent state.
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