Israelis kill Palestinian, claim bomb

JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said early Monday, the latest in a growing wave of violence that has broken out during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military said it opened fire at a man throwing a firebomb at an Israeli vehicle driving on a West Bank highway late Sunday. The shooting raised to four the number of Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, among them an unarmed woman who was shot and killed at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem.

The Israeli military said Monday it arrested 13 Palestinians suspected of militant activity in the West Bank. During the arrest operations Palestinians threw rocks at troops and burned tires, it said.

Palestinian health officials identified the man killed in the latest shooting late Sunday as 21-year-old Muhammad Ali Ahmed Ghoneim.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Mohammed Zakarna, 17, died Monday after he was wounded by Israeli fire in Jenin a day earlier.

Israeli forces patrolled Jenin on Sunday as soldiers investigated the home of an attacker who killed three Israelis in a mass shooting last week. The army said soldiers came under fire from a gunman on a motorcycle and shot him.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Zakarna was shot during that incident.

In a separate incident on Monday, the military said two Israeli citizens arrived at a West Bank checkpoint near Nablus with gunshot wounds. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the two had attempted to visit Joseph’s Tomb, which had been vandalized a day earlier, and were attacked by unidentified assailants.