West Bank: Three Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Authority

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians, including a teenager, during an operation in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said.

Abdel Nasser Mustafa Al-Riahi, 24, was fatally wounded this morning by gunfire in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the ministry said in a press release.

Israeli forces “stormed into the Balata camp and surrounded the house,” causing “clashes,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Two other Palestinians, Abdelrahman Bani Odeh, 16, and Moaz Zahrane, 23, were killed by Israeli soldiers in the village of Tamun and Al-Farah camp, respectively, according to the Health Ministry.

Many Israeli soldiers entered the village of Tamun to make arrests and clashes broke out with local residents, an AFP correspondent on the ground said.

Near Bethlehem, in the Deishe refugee camp, three Palestinians were “wounded by bullets from the occupying forces (Israel, editor’s note), one of them seriously,” another ministry press release said. When asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on this information.

The West Bank, separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has been plagued by increased violence since the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas began on October 7.

Since then, at least 258 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to a Palestinian Authority report.