Jerusalem, May 13. Two Palestinians were killed today by Israeli fire in armed clashes in the Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank, a territory experiencing its highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada with 114 deaths so far this year. anus.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed these two deaths by live bullets and identified the victims as Jihad Shaker Mesha, 32, and Wasim Yousef al Araj, 19; in another raid by the Israeli Army that also left three wounded in stable condition, two of them women, by shots to the neck, abdomen and thigh.
While the Israeli Army aviation has been undertaking the “Shield and Arrow” operation against Islamic Jihad on the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, it has not ceased its frequent -almost daily- incursions into the occupied West Bank, especially in the areas of Jenin and Nablus, strongholds of the Palestinian militia movement.
Today’s raid on the Balata refugee camp was aimed at detaining members of the Balata Battalion, a new armed group of Palestinian youth with no ideological affiliation that has emerged in the last year, a phenomenon that is being replicated in various parts of the West Bank, where the tension is at a fever pitch.
These armed groups have multiplied their attacks against Israeli troops and settlers in the occupied West Bank, in parallel with frequent raids by the Israeli army that often lead to actual clashes, and an increase in attacks by settlers.
So far this year, 114 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict between the West Bank and Israel, most of them militants in violent clashes with Israeli troops, but also civilians, including 20 minors. On the Israeli side, 19 people have died, victims of Palestinian attacks, most of them settlers, and among them three minors.
In Gaza, in full escalation of the war against Islamic Jihad, 33 Palestinians have died in four days – at least 15 civilians, including 7 children -, plus one last week. An elderly woman died in Israel from the impact of rockets. EFE
gs/amg
(photo)(video)
