An Israeli soldier has been shot dead near an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank in an attack claimed by a Palestinian resistance group. This was the second such attack on Zionist occupation forces within days, as Palestinian resistance has escalated.
The shooting in the Israeli settlement was claimed by the Lions’ Den, a loose coalition of Palestinian fighters that has emerged in recent months.
The soldier was shot near Shavei Shomron, an Israeli settlement, during a settler march headed to the nearby Palestinian town of Sebastia.
“We announce carrying out a second shooting operation targeting occupation [Israeli] soldiers in the Deir Sharaf area, west of Nablus,” the group said.
The area is located between Nablus and Jenin, Palestinian towns that have seen a half-year of intensified army incursions launched by Israel’s colonial occupation forces after a wave of Palestinian resistance in Israeli cities.
The attack comes three days after an 18-year-old Israeli soldier was shot dead at a checkpoint by the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat, in occupied east Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, four Palestinian teenagers have been shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since Friday.
A fifth Palestinian, a 12-year-old boy, died on Monday from wounds sustained last month during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Residents of occupied East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp have been besieged in the neighbourhood for four days, with some unable to leave to receive critical health treatments and many basic supplies running low, as Israeli forces enforce a strict blockade.
Israeli troops locked down the camp, located just two kilometres from the Old City, after an Israeli soldier was killed on Saturday by a man who approached a checkpoint leading to the camp and opened fire.
The Israeli army and other security forces have launched near-daily West Bank raids in recent months, mainly in Jenin and Nablus, where Palestinian armed resistance is becoming more organised and new groups of fighters have been formed.
More than 80 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, have been killed since January, making 2022 the deadliest year in the occupied West Bank since 2008.
Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead in May while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.
At least 20 Palestinian minors have been killed in the West Bank this year.
Israel began its colonial occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international laws. Successive Israeli governments have built and expanded settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories – a move which is aimed at demographic change.
There are at least 600,000 Israeli settlers living in some 250 settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, often under heavy Israeli military protection.