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Ramallah, West Bank (ANS) — Palestinian health officials said that Israeli armed forces killed two Palestinians during a confrontation that had occurred Monday.
Accounts of the confrontation indicate that soldiers killed the Palestinians after having entered a village in the occupied West Bank.
According to officials, the Palestinians were killed in the village of Kafr Dan, which is near the city of Jenin in the north of the West Bank.
Reportedly, the confrontation started after Israeli soldiers had entered the village to demolish the houses of the two Palestinians who allegedly had killed an Israelie soldier during a firefight in September.
Israeli officials claim that the Palestinians were firing at soldiers, who responded with armed force during the encounter.
Israel maintains a policy some call collective punishment. Israel has a policy of demolishing dwellings of militants or those deemed or accused to be militants.
Since last Spring, when tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were on the rise, Israel’s armed forces have been conducting near daily raids into various towns and cities in the West Bank.
In the context of such confrontations, human rights groups say that 2022 was the deadliest since 2004.
In 2004, nearly 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, whereas in 2022, 148 Palestinians were killed.
Both years have in common an increase in the number of confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians; both periods have in common an uptick in tensions between the inhabitants of occupied territories and armed forces, observers say.
For their part, Palestinians killed nine Israelis several months ago.
Israeli officials claim that all those killed were militants; however, human rights groups like B’Tselem maintain that not all of those killed by Isreali forces were militants.
For example, some were not involved in confrontations; others were stone-throwing youth, they said.
Hamoked, another Israeil rights groups, states that Israel is holding nearly 900 Palestinians in administrative detention.
Administrative detention is imprisonment without trial.
Hamoked indicates that the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has increased by several hundred since last year, when tensions were on the rise.
The group states that the number of those held in administrative detention is the greatest its been since 2003, during the last Palestinian uprising.
Hamoked reports that there are nearly 4,700 Palestinians in prison over security-related charges.
Israeli officials say that raids are intended to prevent future attacks and to disrupt the activities of what they call militants.
Palestinians and human rights groups say that the raids constitute further encroachments by Israel and its occupation of the West Bank.
During the 1967 War, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Depsite a number of UN Resolutions since that war, Israel has increased the number of its settlements in the West Bank.
Affiliated News Services & APS Radio News
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