Israeli troops, backed by helicopter, kill five Palestinians in Jenin
Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed five Palestinians on Monday, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire.
The sound of gunfire was heard across Jenin as wounded Palestinians continued to arrive by ambulance to the northern West Bank city’s Ibn Sina hospital into the early afternoon, an AFP journalist said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said five people had been killed and at least 91 others were wounded in the violence.
It named four of those killed: 15-year-old Ahmed Saqer, Khaled Assassa, 21, Qais Jabareen, 21, Ahmad Daraghmeh, 19, and Qassam Abu Saria, 29.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance group said Abu Saria was one of his fighters.
Among the injured was Palestinian journalist Hazem Nasser, who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound, according to the Palestinian journalists syndicate.
The violence marked a rare use of Israeli airpower in the territory. During the clashes, Palestinians detonated a roadside bomb next to an Israeli military vehicle.
“We had five Israeli border police guys wounded, and two soldiers also lightly wounded,” army spokesman Richard Hecht said.
A Palestinian intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity it was the first time since 2002 – during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising – that the Israeli army has fired missiles from an aircraft during a raid in Jenin.
The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was “extremely worried by the deteriorating situation”.
“Unlawful killings of Palestinians by the Israeli security forces have increased, including apparent extrajudicial executions,” he added.
Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated over the past year, especially after the hard-right cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power in December.
Since the start of the year, at least 163 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in the tensions in the occupied territories.