Reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has it that Israeli soldiers, yesterday shot dead a Palestinian man after he allegedly fired at troops in the occupied West Bank, medical and military officials said.
The Palestinian health ministry said Hamdi Abu Dayyeh, 40, was killed ‘by Israeli occupation bullets’ in the southern town of Halhul.
Israel’s army said an assailant shot at soldiers, ‘who responded with live fire and neutralised him.’
A Palestinian woman told reporters that she was in a car with her family when gunfire erupted.
‘We were on the road, people were moving around normally… the army kept firing, we got down under the seats,’ said Umm Amir Taqatqa, a resident of nearby Beit Fajjar.
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The Halhul shooting raises the toll of Palestinians killed this month in the West Bank to 15, including civilians and militants.
The majority have been killed by Israeli forces, which have occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
A surge in violence in 2022 made it the deadliest year in the West Bank since United Nations records began in 2005.
At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories last year.
The majority of the fatalities were in the West Bank, while 49 Palestinians were killed in a three-day conflict in Gaza.
In another report, tens of thousands of people protested in central Tel Aviv Saturday against embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new hard-right government, which critics say threatens Israeli democracy.
Africa Today News, New York reports that protesters actually braved the rain for the rally, brandishing signs with slogans decrying a ‘government of shame’ and urging: ‘bring down the dictator’.
Israeli media reported 80,000 people joined the rally, citing police sources. Police gave no official estimate after reporting 20,000 protesters earlier in the evening.
The demonstration is the biggest since Netanyahu’s new government took power in late December in Israel, a country of just over nine million.