2 Palestinians Shot Dead in Separate Car-Ramming Attacks
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli security forces shot dead two Palestinians who tried to ram them with their cars during an arrest raid in the West Bank Wednesday, the Israeli army and police and Palestinian medical sources said.
Soldiers shot and killed the driver of a car who tried to run them over in one attack during the raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, the army said. Three soldiers were injured.
In a second incident elsewhere in the camp, paramilitary Border Police shot dead the driver of another car who tried to ram them, a police spokeswoman said.
Palestinian medical sources said four people went to hospital with gunshot wounds after a clash that erupted during the raid, which the army said was intended “to arrest suspects and confiscate weapons.”
Violent incidents have become a daily occurrence in the West Bank, Israel and Jerusalem in the past two months as an increasing number of Jews visit East Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound – Islam’s third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical-era temples.
Since Oct. 1, Israeli forces have killed 112 Palestinians, 67 of whom Israel says were assailants or had been caught on camera carrying out assaults. Most of the others were killed in clashes with police or troops.
One U.S. citizen and 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
Palestinians are also frustrated over a peacemaking process, deadlocked since early 2014, while Israel persists in expanding settlements in the dozens of enclaves it has built on land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
International condemnation of Israel’s actions in the occupied territory has also intensified and foreign powers have expressed concern over what they say is excessive use of force. (Reuters)
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