The Israeli military claimed to have “neutralized” an attacker who had fired at an Israeli civilian, while the Palestinian health ministry reported that a Palestinian man had been shot dead by Israeli forces on Monday in the occupied West Bank.
Tariq Ziad Abdul Rahim Daoud, 18, was killed “by the occupation forces’ bullets near the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya” in the northern West Bank, according to a statement from the ministry, which is headquartered in Ramallah.
Although Israel forbids Israelis from visiting built-up Palestinian areas, the Israeli military said in a statement that the suspected attacker had “fired at an Israeli civilian who was in the city” of Qalqilya.
According to the military, two more Palestinians and the Israeli citizen were both injured.
“IDF (the Israeli military) conducted a pursuit after the terrorist and neutralised him adjacent to Qalqilya”, it added.
Hamas’s political wing later issued a statement mourning the death of “Tariq Daoud, commander of Al-Qassam Brigades in Qalqilya Governorate, who was killed in a cowardly assassination” by Israeli forces in Azzun.
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967 and that is geographically divided from Gaza by Israeli land, has seen an increase in violence since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, which was precipitated by the extraordinary Hamas attack on October 7.
Based on official Palestinian figures, the AFP counted the number of Palestinian deaths there, at least 618 of them caused by the Israeli army or settlers.
According to official Israeli figures, at least eighteen Israelis, including soldiers, have died as a result of Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period.
