Israeli forces on Thursday shot and killed a Palestinian activist during a raid in the occupied West Bank and injured a health worker, according to official Palestinian and Israeli sources.
“Moustafa al-Kastouni, 32, was killed after being shot in the head, chest and abdomen by the occupation (Israeli forces) during an assault in Jenin,” the ministry said. Health in a press release.
Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Jenin, told AFP that two people were injured, including a health service worker who was hit in the chest and abdomen during the raid.
His condition is critical, said the deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Roub.
This new operation comes against the backdrop of an outbreak of violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning of the year, in particular in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Jamil Hardan, owner of one of the buildings destroyed in the raid, told AFP that Israeli forces entered Jenin around 7:15 a.m. (0415 GMT).
“A car stopped… followed by another silver-colored car. Army special forces in military uniforms got out,” he said.
“They kidnapped two young men in the street,” he added, adding that they had shot Moustafa al-Kastouni during the operation.
Israeli forces identified the slain activist as Moustafa Kumboua, saying he was “shot after opening fire on the forces and trying to flee when arrested”.
Israeli forces came under fire during the arrest of two individuals, the army said in a statement.
These forces “responded immediately with live fire and entered the building” where they discovered weapons. An Israeli soldier was lightly injured by shrapnel, according to the army.
An AFP photographer saw Palestinians gather after the raid near a pile of debris and broken wood, overlooking a narrow thoroughfare in the city, a stronghold of Palestinian militants in the northern part of the West Bank.
The Jenin Brigades, a local armed group, said al-Kastouni was killed when fighters clashed with Israeli forces with ‘salvoes of bullets and explosive devices’ as they ‘infiltrated’ into Jenin .
Al-Kastouni was himself a fighter with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, according to the Jenin Brigades.
At least 217 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the year in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as 28 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian, according to an AFP count compiled from official sources.
These statistics include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.
08/17/2023 15:24:13 – Jenin (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
