Palestinian Killed in West Bank Clash with Israel Army

Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus on June 08, 2021. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90
Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus on June 08, 2021. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90
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Palestinian Killed in West Bank Clash with Israel Army

Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus on June 08, 2021. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90
Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus on June 08, 2021. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man during a clash in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The fighting rocked the Dheisheh camp near Bethlehem, a ministry statement said, identifying the dead man as Ayman Muhaisen, 29. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army had no immediate comment.

The Palestinian death was the third within 24 hours after a woman approaching soldiers with a knife was shot early Wednesday, and a man was killed in an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank later that day, AFP said.

The second death came when Israeli troops mounted an incursion into the village of Yabad outside Jenin to demolish the home of the alleged assailant in a March attack that killed five people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak.

The health ministry said the Palestinian died in hospital in Jenin, after being admitted in critical condition, having been "shot by live bullets in the chest and thigh".

Palestinian news agency Wafa said that six Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli raid.

The army added that it had on April 17 informed the family of Diaa Armashah, 27, of the demolition order against the family home.

Israel regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.

The practice, which often fuels tensions, has been condemned by critics as a form of collective punishment. Israel insists it deters attacks.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers shot dead Ghofran Warasnah, 31, near Hebron after she "advanced" towards soldiers with a knife, the army said.

Nineteen people, mostly Israeli civilians -- including 18 inside Israel and a Jewish settler -- have been killed in attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs since late March.

Israeli security forces have responded with raids inside Israel and the West Bank, particularly in the flashpoint northern district of Jenin. Three Israeli Arab attackers and a police commando have died. 

Thirty-eight Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank -- suspected militants but also non-combatants, including an Al Jazeera journalist who was covering a raid in Jenin and bystanders.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.