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.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.