The army installs snipers on rooftops around the Balata camp during the fierce raid that killed Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer.
The Israeli army has killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded nine others in the Balata refugee camp, as Israeli forces step up raids in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday that 18-year-old Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer was shot dead during the overnight raid on the camp, located on the outskirts of the northern city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Nine people are in “critical condition” after being injured in the raid, which began on Friday night and sparked violent confrontations, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli soldiers entered the camp from the Awarta checkpoint, placing “snipers on the roofs of the surrounding buildings.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said soldiers fired on “terrorists” who had “thrown explosives, Molotov cocktails and stones, and fired fireworks at the forces”.
Violence in the occupied West Bank has intensified since war broke out in the Gaza Strip following attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Since then, at least 815 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks in the occupied West Bank have killed at least 25 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures.
Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reported that a Palestinian child named was wounded in the eye by bullet fragments during an Israeli military raid on homes in the town of Tuqu, located southeast of Bethlehem, on Friday.
Israeli forces also carried out separate raids in three towns in the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank.
Local sources told Wafa that Israeli soldiers set up checkpoints in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, where they stopped vehicles and checked identification cards.
In ash-Shuyukh, north of Hebron, Israeli patrols removed Palestinian flags from the city’s streets. In a separate operation, soldiers cordoned off areas in the nearby Arroub refugee camp.
Raids by the Palestinian Authority
Since December, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has also raided the Jenin refugee camp, located in the north of the territory, saying they want to crush armed Palestinian resistance.
There have been weeks of fighting, with civilians and members of the Palestinian Authority security forces killed.
The family of a Palestinian father and son who were killed Friday in the camp blamed the PA for their deaths.
However, PA security forces issued a statement denying that their security forces were present in the area. Instead, they blamed the deaths on fighters in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Jenin Battalion armed group issued a statement blaming the PA for killing at least 16 Palestinian civilians since October 2023.
A member of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, identified in reports as Major Rashid Shaqo, also died in the camp on Friday.
A PA official described the killing as an “accidental incident,” according to Reuters news agency.
