Palestinian teenage boy killed in Israeli raid on occupied West Bank

The Palestinian health ministry identified the victim as 17-year-old Hamza al-Ashqar, a resident of the New Askar refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus.

Israeli special forces raided the eastern sector of Nablus, located approximately 49 kilometers (30 miles) north of al-Quds, early on Monday and carried out arrests. They clashed with Palestinian youths and fighters during the raid.

Palestinian media outlets, citing local sources, reported that Israeli troops arrested three people who were recently released from prison after they broke into their homes in the area.

The sources added that Ashqar was critically wounded in the head by the Israeli occupation forces’ bullets during the aggression on Nablus. He was transported to Rafidia Surgical Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

On Sunday, Israeli forces shot dead at least five Palestinian men during a large-scale raid on the Aqabet Jabr refugee camp

– which has been under an Israeli siege for more than a week – near Ariha.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement that the fatalities included two men responsible for an attempted shooting attack in the city on January 28.

The army said it withheld the bodies of the men killed, including those it claimed were members of a cell affiliated with the Hamas resistance movement in Ariha.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem later stated that the “massacre” committed by the Israeli army in Ariha would “fuel a revolution” among Palestinians.

“The continuous killings confirm the Israeli occupation’s great confusion in dealing with the escalation and expansion of resistance in all of the cities, camps and villages of the West Bank, and its inability to stop its escalation,” Qassem said.

Israeli forces launch raids on various cities of the occupied West Bank almost on a daily basis under the pretext of detaining what the regime calls “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.

Over the past months, Israel has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

The United Nations marked 2022 as the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in 16 years.

Israeli forces killed at least 171 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East al-Quds last year, including more than 30 children. At least 9,000 others were also injured.