JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli military said troops shot a Palestinian who approached soldiers on Friday and pulled a knife near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian authorities said the man died of his wounds a short while later.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Yazan Khaseeb, 23.
The military said the man refused to identify himself and drew a knife, prompting the soldiers to open fire. It published a photo of the alleged knife on the ground.
It was the latest bloodshed in the current round of violence, one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in years. The escalation began a year ago after a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that triggered near-nightly Israeli raids in the West Bank. Friday’s death brings the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the year to 85. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 14 people in 2023.
According to an Associated Press tally, about half of the Palestinians killed this year were affiliated with militant groups. Israel said most of the dead were militants.
But stone-throwing youth protesting the incursions, some in their early teens, and others not involved in confrontations, including three men over 60, have also been killed.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that same time killed 30 people.
