Ramallah: Two Palestinians have died of Israeli gunfire in the West Bank, including one who was shot for attacking an Israeli checkpoint, Palestinian sources said.
Isaq Ajlouni, 18-year-old, was killed by Israeli soldiers at an Israeli army checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Israeli and Palestinian sources.
Palestinian witnesses said he was killed by Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem after he opened fire and lightly wounded an Israeli security guard.
An Israeli police spokesman confirmed that a Palestinian armed with an M16 automatic machine-gun reached the checkpoint and opened fire at the Israeli soldiers and security forces.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Israeli checkpoint.
Also on Saturday, Tariq Idrees, 39, succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli soldiers’ gunfire during an Israeli army raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Friday to arrest wanted Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a short briefing.
According to eyewitnesses, Idrees was critically wounded by Israeli soldiers during clashes between the soldiers and dozens of Palestinians in a refugee camp.
The tension between Israelis and the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been flaring since early January after the Israeli army intensified its daily raids on Palestinian towns and cities to arrest Palestinians wanted by Israel.
Since January, 24 people, most of them Israelis, were killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians, and 175 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to official figures.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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