Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinians
Death toll at 4 in two days in West Bank as tensions grow
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the past two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions.
Also Thursday, an Israeli newspaper reported that Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians but no Jews during a nationalist march through Jerusalem this week in which crowds of Jews chanted racist slogans, assaulted Palestinians and vandalized Palestinian property.
The Israeli military said forces operating in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem opened fire after being pelted with rocks and makeshift bombs. The Palestin- ian Health Ministry said Ayman Mheisen, 29, was killed.
The health ministry later said a teenager was shot by Israeli troops near the separation barrier west of the city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered. The Wafa news agency, run by the Palestinian Authority, identified the deceased as Auda Sadaqa, 17.
The Israeli military said three suspects hurled a firebomb at forces operating near the barrier, who responded with live fire. No soldiers were wounded.
Late Wednesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Yabed, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to destroy the family home of a slain Palestinian attacker who had methodically gunned down five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in March.
The military said Palestinians attacked the soldiers with stones and firebombs, and that the troops exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Bilal Kabaha, 24, was killed. The Islamic militant group Hamas said he was one of its fighters.
Video released by the Israeli military showed soldiers preparing the house for demolition and an explosion ripping through the three-floor building and lighting up the night sky.
Israel routinely demolishes the homes of slain or captured Palestinian militants, saying it serves as a deterrent, despite an internal army report from 2004 that questioned its effectiveness. The Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment.
The Israeli rights group HaMoked said the attacker’s parents and grandmother, as well as a brother who is a minor, were living in the home. It filed a petition against the demolition that was rejected by Israel’s Supreme Court.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops in the southern West Bank killed a Palestinian woman who they say approached them with a knife.
The West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and has been under military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state. The peace process collapsed more than a decade ago.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says 63 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year. It does not differentiate between civilians, militants and those who were killed after carrying out deadly attacks.
PROTEST ARRESTS
Israeli police had said after Sunday’s nationalist march that more than 60 people were arrested but have refused to give a breakdown, despite queries by The Associated Press. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that it checked arrest records name by name and found that no Jews were among those detained. It said two Jews were arrested in a separate, related incident.
Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists participated in Sunday’s parade — an annual march that celebrates Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians consider the event a provocation.
Israeli police cleared out the area for the marchers, who passed through a Palestinian neighborhood before proceeding to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City to pray at the Western Wall.
Large crowds, many of them young Orthodox Jewish youths carrying Israeli flags, gathered at the entrance to the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, dancing and chanting slogans such as “Death to Arabs” before continuing on their way. Inside the Old City, the marchers pounded on the gates of Palestinian businesses and scuffled with angry Palestinian residents. Videos captured on social media showed marchers spitting, beating and spraying pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists.
According to the Haaretz report, nearly all of those arrested Thursday were Palestinian. Two Jewish suspects were arrested after the parade in the beating of a Palestinian journalist during unrest outside the Old City, it said. The newspaper compiled the statistics by going through court records in the days after the parade.
Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said only a small minority of the flag marchers was responsible for the bad behavior and vowed to prosecute anyone who broke the law.
Several other journalists were physically assaulted while covering the march, according to the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media outlets operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories.