Tension between Israel, the Palestinians and their neighbors in Syria and Lebanon continued on Monday, with no end in sight. In the most recent episode, Israeli forces shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager during clashes in a refugee camp in Jericho, in the center of the occupied West Bank, according to official sources.
Tension in the area was also accelerated by a march on Monday of thousands of Israelis led by at least seven government ministers by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an evacuated settlement in the West Bank.
The tension between Israel and the Palestinians shot after a Police raid last week on the grounds of Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“The boy Muhamed Fayez Bilhan, 15 years old, he died of blows to the head, chest and abdomen since the (Israeli) occupation, in the Aqabat Jabr camp in Jericho,” reads a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
At least one other person was injured by a bullet and taken to hospital, the same source said.
The Israeli army has confirmed that its troops have been operating in Aqabat Jaber, adjacent to the Palestinian tourist city of Jericho, “for arrest a suspected terrorist“who will be tried before the Israeli authorities.
“During the operation, violent riots were instigated in various locations. As the soldiers left the area, the suspects opened fire on them, throwing explosive devices and Molotov cocktails. The soldiers responded with fire.“said an army spokesman, who reported no injuries among its troops.
The uniformed men surrounded the entire camp and raided the place “to arrest the activists, and during the raid, The Palestinians confronted the soldiers who opened fire on them,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed.
These events come hours after an Israeli soldier and officer were lightly wounded by Palestinian fire during an operation in Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank.
In that place, a stronghold of the Palestinian militias, the car was found that would have been used to carry out an armed attack on Friday in the Jordan Valley, also in the West Bank, which caused the death of two Israeli settlers of British origin. The mother of women passed away this Monday. She had been seriously injured in the attack.
Israeli authorities They are still looking for the perpetrators of this attack.
March of ministers and settlers
This Monday’s march of thousands of Israelis led by seven Netanyahu ministers to an evacuated settlement in the West Bank is a provocative hint which the most conservative government in Israel’s history is determined to do accelerate the construction of settlements in the occupied territory despite international opposition.
The authorities have deployed thousands of police and soldiers in the northern West Bank, the scene of frequent clashes in recent months, to secure the march after days of riots in Jerusalem and on Israel’s northern and southern fronts that accompanied the overlapping of important Jewish holidays. and Muslims.
The march to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement in the northern West Bank evacuated by the Israeli government in 2021, was led by ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers. Organizers They demanded the rehabilitation and legalization of the outpost.
Daniella Weiss, a settler leader, told Kan public radio that ministers’ participation in the march could be “therapy for the government free oneself from the dictates of the United States and Europea” in relation to the liquidation.
Cabinet members present at the march included Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – two settlers from the West Bank – and at least 20 Knesset members.
Speaking at the march, Ben-Gvir said that “we are here to say it the Israeli nation is strong” and that “we are here and will continue to be here”.
Officially, the army banned visits to Eviatar after the evacuation. But that veto has been laxly enforced in recent months. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army authorized Monday’s march and that it would be “very closely monitored and highly protected”.
A year of violence and repression in Israel
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become particularly bloody in the last year, with an increase in Israeli army raids in the West Bank and an increase in attacks by Palestinians, as well as violent attacks by Israeli settlers.
The first months of this year have been the most violent of the conflict since 2000. Since the beginning of 2023, 96 Palestinians died and Arab-Israelis in violent incidents with Israel and also 18 people on the Israeli side, victims of attacks.
The escalation in this area has also had repercussions on other fronts: in recent days there have been violent clashes between Israeli forces and Muslims who were at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to pray for their holy month of Ramadan, and there there have been exchanges of fire between Israeli and Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip, Syria and Lebanon.
Israel took control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, and has done so ever since maintains an occupation and colonization of these territories which is one of the longest in recent history.
Source: EFE and AP
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.