Israeli army kills Palestinian in West Bank raid

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian fighter in the occupied West Bank Thursday, Palestinian officials said, as the army said it came under fire during a operation to demolish an apartment.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Khalil Yahya Anis, 20, was “killed by live occupation (Israeli) bullets in the head in Nablus”.

An official at Nablus’ Al Najah hospital told AFP that two others were injured in the overnight clashes which erupted when Israeli forces entered the city in the northern West Bank to demolish the home of an alleged attacker.

An AFP journalist saw a group of young men surveying the damage to the apartment after dawn on Thursday. Twisted metal and piles of rubble littered the floor and a gaping hole was left in a wall.

A local Palestinian security official, who spoke on condition on anonymity, confirmed that Anis was a fighter, though he did not say with which group he was affiliated.

Another security source in Nablus told AFP that Anis was a resident of the city’s Al-Ain refugee camp and belonged to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

His body was carried from the hospital, shrouded in a Palestinian flag, as his funeral began, an AFP correspondent said.

The Israeli army said that “suspects fired at the soldiers” during the raid.

“The soldiers responded with riot dispersal means and live fire, hits were identified,” it added.

Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Thursday Israel was “dragging the region into escalation and a spiral of violence”.

Witnesses told AFP that the army had demolished the flat of Osama Taweel, a prominent member of the Lions’ Den militant group.

Taweel was arrested by Israel in February after allegedly shooting dead Israeli soldier Ido Baurch at a West Bank settlement in November.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis.

It argues it is a deterrent though critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

Since the start of the year, at least 159 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.

The figures include combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.