Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Man Said To Be Throwing Firebombs at Vehicles in West Bank

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man, 21-year-old Muhammad Ali Ahmed Ghoneim, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said early Monday. The Israeli military said the man was throwing a firebomb at an Israeli vehicle driving on a highway in the West Bank late Sunday night when it opened fire, killing him.

The shooting raises to four the number of Palestinians killed in violence with Israelis over the past day.

These include a woman who stabbed a police officer at the Cave of the Patriarchs holy site in Hebron, and Ghada Ibrahim Sabatien, an unarmed woman who was shot and killed at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem after rushing at soldiers in what they called a “suspicious” manner and failing to heed orders to stop. Sabatien was a widowed mother of six, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Wafa also reported that Mohammed Zakarna, 17, died on Monday after he was wounded by Israeli fire in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday.

Also early Monday morning, two Israeli citizens were shot and wounded by unidentified assailants as they attempted to visit Joseph’s Tomb on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, which had been vandalized and set ablaze by Palestinians a day earlier. Palestinian security forces dispersed the assailants in that incident. The Israeli military escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces and in accordance with agreements worked out between the two sides.

With the convergence of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter this year, tensions have boiled over into violence. Israeli forces have gone on the offensive in several cities in the West Bank after Palestinian and Arab Israeli assailants killed 14 Israelis in four recent terrorist attacks. Israel has also taken steps to de-escalate the situation, granting work permits to thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.