Israeli forces shot and killed five Palestinians in the West Bank on Sunday, where the Israeli military claimed they were targeted with explosive attacks during house demolitions. On Sunday, France condemned Israeli settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians Sunday across the occupied West Bank, health officials said, raising to more than 110 the death toll in surging violence there since the start of the Gaza war.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people aged 29 to 35 were shot dead by Israeli forces at dawn, two of them in Nablus’s Askar refugee camp.
The other incidents took place in Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp, and Tamun north of Nablus.
The Palestinian ministry did not provide further details.
The Israeli military said that during the activity to demolish the home of a militant in Askar, “explosive devices were hurled at Israeli security forces and exchanges of fire took place with terrorists.”
Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians it accuses of deadly attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent. Campaigners say the policy amounts to collective punishment, as it can render non-combatants homeless.
And, while the army was carrying out “counterterrorism activity in the town of Beit Rima, terrorists hurled Molotov cocktails and explosive devices at the forces, who responded with live fire,” according to an army statement.
Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on Palestinian militants there.
France condemns attacks
France on Sunday condemned “unacceptable” Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip earlier this month, mostly during raids by Israeli forces or attacks by settlers, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
“The violence perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population is multiplying. It is unacceptable and must stop”, said a foreign ministry statement.
Israel should “take immediate measures to protect the Palestinian population”, said the statement.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
