At least 84 Palestinians have been killed so far in 2023, putting this year on track as one of the bloodiest.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian they said approached them with an unsheathed knife, the latest killing of a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of Yazan Omar Jamil Khasib, 23, who died “after the occupation [Israeli forces] opened fire on him at the northern entrance to the town of el-Bireh near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
None of the Israeli forces were injured.
The IDF later said its forces “spotted a suspect and asked him to identify himself”. They claimed the man then pulled out a knife and that Israeli troops opened fire and “neutralized” him, the army said in a statement, adding that the killing took place near Beitin, a Palestinian village near el-Bireh.
Since the beginning of this year, at least 84 Palestinians, including children, have been killed by Israeli forces.
On Thursday, at least four Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. A week earlier, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in a raid in Jenin, and less than 48 hours later, six more were killed in another raid in the same town.
In January, Israeli soldiers killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, during a large-scale operation in the Jenin refugee camp.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis resulted in the deaths of 14 people in 2023.
Friday’s killing of the 23-year-old adds to the current spate of bloodshed and puts 2023 on track to be one of the worst years of violence in the Palestinian territories in years.
More than 170 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, making the last year one of the deadliest in the occupied territories since 2004, according to human rights group B ‘Tselem.
During the same period in 2022, 30 Israelis were killed, according to news reports.
