Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians in West Bank raid

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a West Bank military raid on Saturday. A local armed group called them militants.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has increased since last year, including the deadly raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem.

The ministry and Tulkarem’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades branch recognized the men as 22-year-olds Samer El Shafei and Hamza Kharyoush.

The Israeli military suspected the two militants of shooting a nearby Israeli settlement earlier this week. Avnei Hefetz Jewish settlement gunfire injured an Israeli citizen and destroyed vehicles.

Social media videos showed Israeli security forces searching the two gunmen’s corpses on a tin roof. One Israeli soldier tried to overturn a corpse while partially removing his trousers.

Witnesses told Palestinian media soldiers left after confirming the two were dead.
Israeli soldiers have killed 104 Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year.

Since last year’s Palestinian attacks against Israelis, Israel has conducted near-nightly arrest operations in West Bank villages, towns, and cities. Israel claims the raids will break extremist networks and prevent strikes. The Palestinians regard the attacks as entrenching Israel’s 56-year, open-ended occupation of their future state’s lands.

Since the raids, Israel has killed 250 Palestinians. Israel believes most were militants, but stone-throwing adolescents and bystanders were also slain.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis murdered over 50 individuals in the time.