Palestinians killed in clashes and vehicle ramming attack

A Palestinian was shot dead today as he tried to drive his vehicle into a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Friday’s killings bring the total number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces since October 1 to 121, including 25 minors and five women.

Al-Qedra said that 68 Palestinians were wounded by the Israeli fire, 58 of them were injured by live ammunition while 10 suffered suffocation.

The sources said Israeli soldiers and settlers opened fire at 21-year-old Yusri Meswadi after he allegedly stabbed and injured an Israeli soldier and a settler in the Old City neighborhood in downtown Hebron.

A Palestinian man was shot and killed during clashes in the Ras al-Jura area of Hebron on Friday, witnesses told Ma’an.

The health ministry said that the Palestinian death toll climbed to 121 since the outbreak of the current wave of violent tension between Israel and the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories early October.

According to IMEMC, the Israeli soldiers targeted medics, opened fire on a Red Crescent ambulance causing damage to its windshield, and searched an ambulance while transferring a wounded Palestinian to a hospital.

Erekat said the anger that fueled support for groups like Islamic State was undermining people like him who had attempted to negotiate peace with Israel and had been treated instead to the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 24-year-old Oddai Arshid was killed after a bullet hit him in the chest.

“An armed Palestinian assailant fired shots on the Gilboa crossing from several dozen metres (yards) away”, said the ministry, which employs civilian guards at the site. “Hundreds of Palestinians are attacking forces, hurling rocks and rolling burning tyres at them”, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Israel attributes incitement by political and religious leaders for the violence.

Bassam Hamad, whose son Anas was killed this month after he tried to ram Israeli soldiers with his auto, led a protest.

The army said that, during “routine activity in Ramallah”, troops were attacked and responded with “riot dispersal means”. The Shin Bet intelligence agency said Salam is a member of Hamas from the West Bank village of Luban and that he admitted to carrying out the attack.