Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank clash: medics

A 21-year-old man was fatally shot in the head, according to Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Mohammed Awawdeh.

Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians engaged in clashes or attempted attacks in the occupied West Bank Thursday, the latest deaths in a almost two-month wave of deadly violence. She says the Palestinian got out of a taxi near a military post and began running toward officers while brandishing a knife. In the attack, no Israelis had been injured.

On a related matter, Palestinian security officials were quoted by the Hebrew-based Walla! news website as saying that they have managed to thwart about 100 attacks that Palestinians planned to carry out against Israelis in the past two months.

On Monday, a Palestinian fatally stabbed a soldier, two Palestinian girls were shot after they stabbed an elderly Arab man and a vehicle struck a pedestrian before speeding off to a nearby West Bank town. The others died in clashes with Israeli forces.

The Palestinian, identified as 19-year-old Omar al-Za’aqiq, was shot by Israeli forces on the scene and died of his wounds. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their future state.

But there was no indication that any headway was made in his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

This week, a Palestinian radio station playing music that glorified violence was forcibly closed.

Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) recently gave a number of recommendations to ease conditions for the Palestinians, including changes in the system for granting permits to work in Israel in order to increase the number of young Palestinians who can go out to work.

A flash visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by US Secretary John Kerry on Tuesday, aimed at quelling the violence, has not shown any sign of success. Palestinians, meanwhile, have said it is rooted in frustrations over Israel’s nearly-half-century-long occupation of the West Bank.