Two Palestinians shot dead during Israeli raid on Qalandiya refugee camp

Hamas urged that the “heroic resistance against Israeli soldiers and settlers” carry on in a fight to free the Palestinians from the “occupation” so that they may be granted “the right of return – a sacred, nonnegotiable individual and collective right”.

In a second incident elsewhere in the camp, paramilitary Israeli police shot dead the driver of another vehicle who tried to ram them, a police spokeswoman said. Israel has said that 78 of them were assailants, and the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

The current spate of near daily clashes with Israeli soldiers has led to the death of over 120 Palestinian, 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean since the beginning of October.

The army has been criticised by several human rights organisations for implementing a “shoot-to-kill” policy against alleged Palestinian attackers and protestors. However, the army added that it was investigating whether the injuries were caused by stray bullets fired by other troops.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the police response has been “proportional”.

Diab said the 80-square-meter house, which was made out of tin, bricks, and wood, sheltered her and her five children, noting that her husband has been denied entry to Jerusalem for holding a Palestinian Authority identity card.

Israeli soldiers check the bags of Palestinian women during a patrol in the West Bank city of Hebron …

Meanwhile, also on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas referred to the last three months of violence against Israelis as a “justified popular uprising,” saying that young Palestinian demonstrators were “driven by despair” because “a two-state solution is not coming”. Four Palestinian protesters reportedly were injured by IDF gunfire, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

Also Wednesday, a Jerusalem municipal committee advanced plans to build 891 housing units in Gilo, a Jewish area of east Jerusalem that Israel considers an integral part of Jerusalem but that the global community considers an illegal settlement.

“What a suffering it is, to once again see our beloved Holy Land caught in the vicious cycle of bloody violence”, he said.