JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s paramilitary border police said an officer killed an alleged Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank on Friday after they wrestled over a weapon. Amateur video captured the moments the officer fired the fatal shots, and the Palestinian man dropped to the ground.
The video, widely shared on social media, was a rare documentation of one of the increasingly common violent incidents involving Israeli security forces and Palestinians.
Rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions have made 2022 the deadliest year in the long-running conflict since 2006. Further escalation is likely, as the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history is poised to be installed in coming days or weeks, with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power.
Friday’s violence took place along a busy thoroughfare in the town of Hawara, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting this year.
Earlier on Friday, dozens of Israeli peace activists toured Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, in a show of solidarity with Palestinians, amid chants of “shame, shame” from ultra-nationalist hecklers. The encounter came a month after the strong showing of far-right factions in parliamentary elections and reflected the widening rift among Israelis over the nature of their society and the fate of the occupied territories.
