Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian fighters yesterday in the West Bank, on a day mourners laid to rest a British-Israeli woman who died in an attack that also killed her two daughters.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last week.
“I commend the actions of the soldiers who eliminated two fighters who opened fire on them near Elon Moreh”, a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank city of Nablus, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Twitter. The army said it seized two M-16 rifles and a handgun.
The Palestinian ministry of health named the two men as Saud Abdullah Saud Titi and Mohamed Abu Dhiraa. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement — claimed the two men as members.
They were from the nearby Balata refugee camp, a statement from Fatah said.
The incident came as thousands of mourners gathered yesterday at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank for the funeral of a British-Israeli woman killed in a shooting attack days earlier. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and hundreds of thousands of settlers live in Israeli-approved settlements there which are considered illegal under international law. Israelis holding national flags lined the roads in the rain leading to the funeral for Lucy Dee in Kfar Etzion. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a statement, labelled the killings “abhorrent” and added “the UK condemns this appalling attack on civilians”.
He said Britain urged “all sides to de-escalate tensions in Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories, and end the deadly cycle of violence.” The latest surge in unrest began last Wednesday with an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, followed by rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and a car-ramming in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist.
The body of Alessandro Parini arrived back in Rome yesterday, after the 36-year-old was killed when a car ploughed into pedestrians on the city’s seafront on Friday evening.
On Monday, Palestinian mourners had gathered near Jericho city for the funeral of a 15-year-old boy, Mohamed Fayez Balhan, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid in the Jordan Valley.
The army said it was working to apprehend “a suspect,” and one person was detained during the operation.
The conflict has this year claimed the lives of at least 96 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP count based on Israeli and Palestinian official sources.
These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.