Israeli raid on Nablus leaves one Palestinian dead, four more injured

The regime’s soldiers were escorting a group of settlers, including Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and other police officials, who were visiting Joseph’s Tomb early Thursday.

The provocative visit sparked clashes with local Palestinians who tried to confront the Israeli raid.

The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that 19-year-old Bader Sami Masri was hit by Israeli fire and taken to hospital, where he later died of his wounds.

At least four Palestinians also sustained gunshot wounds in the clashes, two of whom were in serious condition, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.

It also noted that 30 Palestinians were treated for tear gas inhalation, including a 12-year-old girl.

Ahmed Jibril, the head of the emergency and ambulance department at the Red Crescent branch in Nablus, said the occupation troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets at an ambulance, which was transporting a patient near Balata refugee camp.

Footage circulating on social media showed Palestinian fighters blowing up an Israeli armored bulldozer with an improvised explosive device.

Meanwhile, the Nablus battalion of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said its members were “fighting the occupation forces and groups of settlers who had stormed the area of Joseph’s Tomb.”

Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank for the past year and a half, with the Israeli military carrying out near-nightly raids and the Palestinians carrying out retaliatory attacks.

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the beginning of this year.