Palestinian rams Israeli forces with car, shot dead: army

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Thursday morning have shot dead a Palestinian for allegedly running over an Israeli soldier at Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus, northern West Bank.

The army says the Palestinian driver barreled into the soldiers as they were patrolling a road near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli forces fatally shot the assailant on the scene.

Family members later identified the attacker as 22-year-old Hassan Bazour.

The attack was the latest in three months of assaults by Palestinians on Israelis, as well as clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers.

Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem said earlier this month that in several cases, the use of lethal gunfire – including the killing of alleged assailants after they no longer posed danger or were lying motionless on the ground – has been excessive.

The majority of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out attacks.

Nearly daily Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shooting attacks have killed 21 Israelis and a US citizen, raising fears of a wider escalation a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided. On Thursday, it turned over a number of bodies to the Palestinian authorities.

The restrictions imposed by Israel on entry into the compound have enraged Palestinians, who are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers, who frequently storm the al-Aqsa Mosque.

During that same period more than 15,000 Palestinians and 350 Israelis were wounded, the United Nations said on Wednesday.