The Israeli military said that it and other agencies had “neutralised” three wanted suspects who were involved in carrying out the shooting attacks, and who were planning future attacks. It added that two of the three were killed in the crossfire.
Along with the high mortality rate, the raid raised the prospect of further bloodshed.
Early Thursday, police said security guards at the entrance to a West Bank settlement fatally shot a woman who police said she wielded a knife in an attempted stabbing.
The violence comes in the first weeks of the new far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which has promised to take a hard line against Palestinians and build settlements on land the Palestinians seek in search of their future state.
The Israeli army regularly conducts raids in the occupied West Bank, even though the Palestinian Authority has full control over administrative and security issues in the territory.
At least 55 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, while 2023 is expected to kill 11 people in Palestinian attacks on Israel, according to the AP. A similar raid in the West Bank city of Jenin last month was followed by a deadly Palestinian attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue.
About 150 Palestinians were executed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem last year, according to figures from the Israeli rights group B’Salem, the deadliest year in those areas since 2004. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 29 people were killed by Palestinians in Israel, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Twenty-three civilians—including a child—and six members of Israel’s security forces were killed.
Israel says most of those killed were militants, but others have also been killed, including youths protesting the incursion and others not involved in the confrontation. An AP tally found that less than half of those killed belonged to militant groups.
Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle terrorist networks and thwart future attacks; Palestinians see them as a further entry into Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war, with the Palestinians hoping for their own independent state.
associated Press, Paul Goldman, lavahez jabari And Aina J Khan Contribution,
