Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian in West Bank

By Reuters January 31, 2015

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, the military and a Palestinian security official said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers saw two Palestinians throwing a fire bomb towards a road near the Palestinian city of Nablus and “identifying an immediate threat shot toward the suspects’ lower extremities.”

The road is also used by Israelis from adjacent settlements.

A Palestinian security source said one of the Palestinians shot by the soldiers was killed, but gave no further details. The Israeli military said it was searching for the second man.

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories surged in the weeks before a 50-day Gaza war in July and August, in which more than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza and 73 people on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers, were killed.

It has continued apace since then with 11 Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks and at least 12 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including some of the attackers.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

U.S.-brokered peace talks between the sides broke down in April. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has since stepped up unilateral moves at the United Nations towards Palestinian statehood.

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