Israeli forces kill three Palestinians as violence spirals

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestinians from the Islamic Jihad resistance movement during a raid in the West Bank on Saturday, the latest deaths in a surge of violence.

The bloodshed comes amid heightened tensions ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which has seen violence spiral in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Last year during Ramadan, clashes that flared between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians visiting Al Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem led a large-scale Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, Israeli occupation forces said they killed three members of the Islamic Jihad group who allegedly had opened fire during a raid to arrest them near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The Islamic Jihad, which is based in Gaza, confirmed the "death of our three hero fighters" from the West Bank, identifying them as Saeb Abahra, Khalil Tawalbeh and Seif Abu Labdeh.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said they were slain in an "extrajudicial killing" and "horrible crime".

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned in a tweet on Saturday that the Israeli forces would "act forcefully against any attempted attack" on citizens of Israel.

Saturday's clash is the latest in a spate of bloody violence in Israel and the West Bank since March 22.

On Friday, Israeli forces shot dead a 29-year-old Palestinian during confrontations in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Wafa named him as Ahmad Al Atrash, who it said was taking part in a protest against Israeli settlements and had previously served six years in an Israeli prison.

Hebron, the biggest city in the West Bank, is home to about 1,000 Jewish settlers living under heavy Israeli military protection, among more than 200,000 Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 70 people were wounded in Friday’s clashes with the Israeli forces in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank.

On Thursday, Israeli forces raided Jenin, leading to clashes in which two Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Elsewhere in the West Bank on the same day, a Palestinian man who stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli civilian with a screwdriver on a bus was shot dead south of the city of Bethlehem.

It followed an attack on Tuesday night in Bnei Brak, an Orthodox Jewish city near Tel Aviv where a Palestinian with an assault rifle killed two Israeli civilians, two Ukrainian nationals and an Arab-Israeli policeman.

The West Bank, which has been occupied by Israeli forces since the June War of 1967, is home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers, living in communities regarded as illegal under international law.