Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Two Palestinian youths shot dead and 20 arrested as Israeli forces continue deadly crackdown in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have shot dead two young Palestinians and injured two others as they continued their military incursions into the occupied West Bank.

Mustafa Sultan Abed, 22 and Ahmad Mohammad Shawahneh, 21, were shot dead near the Salem checkpoint in the city of Jenin, and ambulances were prevented from reaching the area to recover the bodies of the two slain youths, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday.

“What we know is that they were left to bleed out for about an hour before ambulances were allowed to arrive and attend to them,” said Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“This is a violation of international law. Israeli soldiers are obligated by international law to give life-saving aid, even in an instance such as this.”

Two moderately wounded Palestinians were rushed to Jenin city, a Palestine Red Crescent Society medic was quoted as saying by Wafa.

Al Jazeera’s Basravi said across the occupied West Bank, there have been four raids on cities and seven on villages from Friday night, with a village west of Ramallah being the latest to be targeted, and an incursion into Tulkarem ending hours ago.

“We know that Israeli forces went in and took security cameras off the street in front of Palestinian homes that residents use to monitor the raids,” he said.

‘Six months felt like six years’

At least 20 Palestinians were arrested during the Israeli raids on Saturday, among them children and former prisoners, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society NGO.

In Tulkarem, Israeli soldiers arrested a young man after they beat him and ransacked his family house, according to Wafa.

Since the start of the war on Gaza after the October 7 attacks by Palestinian groups, Israel has arrested 8,480 Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank, about 3,660 of them held illegally under administrative detention with no charges brought against them.

Israeli armed forces are poised to arrest many other Palestinians illegally as they have been conducting daily raids in occupied areas over the nearly seven-month period.

Omar Assaf, a Palestinian activist who was jailed by Israel for six months, says conditions in his cell were so dire and food portions so meagre that he lost 29kg (64lbs) while behind bars.

“The amount of food we would get in prison was not enough. It was merely enough to keep us from dying,” Assaf, from Ramallah, said upon his release. “Israeli guards would give us two pieces of tomato for 10 people.

“These six months felt like six years. My fellow Palestinians and I weren’t detainees or political prisoners. We were hostages.”

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are also subject to regular violent attacks by Israeli colonists. Wafa reported that during the latest attack on Saturday, a 20-year-old was physically assaulted and beaten while herding ship in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank.