Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teens on Saturday in clashes that erupted during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, and two Israelis were badly wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem, police said.
Israeli police described the shooting, at the Palestinian refugee camp Shuafat on Jerusalem’s outskirts near the West Bank, as a “terrorist attack” and said forces were searching for the suspect who had fled the scene.
Earlier, the Israeli military said security forces on an operation to arrest a wanted gunman from the Islamic Jihad militant group in the flashpoint city of Jenin came under Palestinian fire.
“Dozens of Palestinians threw explosives and Molotov cocktails at the forces and fired at them. The forces fired at armed suspects. Hits were identified,” the military said on Twitter.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians, aged 16 and 18, were killed and 11 were wounded. Palestinian President Mhamoud Abbas condemned the killings.
The latest in near-daily incursions into Jenin, a militant stronghold, underlined the volatile security climate in the West Bank as Israel heads towards elections on Nov. 1.
Israel launched its Operation Breakwater against militants on March 31 in response to a string of fatal Palestinian street attacks in Israel.
The surge in violence in the West Bank, where the Palestinian have limited self-rule, has been one of the worst in years with around 80 Palestinians killed, including militants and civilians.
UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was alarmed by the violence and called for calm.
U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014 and show no sign of revival.
Israeli security officials have called on Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to do more to rein in violence.
The authority, increasingly unpopular in the West Bank, says its ability to exert its rule has been systematically undermined by Israel’s incursions.
Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement that Israel’s government was “delusional” in thinking such actions would promote peace and stability.
“Our steadfast people will remain committed to their rights and national principles, defending their land and holy places at all costs.”
Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters