The body of an Israeli was
"removed"
in the occupied West Bank, the scene of violent night clashes between Israeli forces and local fighters who killed a Palestinian, officials said early Wednesday (November 23rd).
The body of an 18-year-old Israeli civilian, a member of the Druze minority who died Tuesday of a "serious road accident"
in the West Bank, was
"removed"
from the hospital in the
Israeli army, according to the Israeli army.
Jenin, a stronghold of armed factions in the northern West Bank, where he was pronounced dead.
The kidnapping was not immediately claimed, but local sources told AFP that Palestinian fighters in a nearby refugee camp were now in possession of the body.
Violent armed clashes
The abductions of Israelis, dead or alive, have already been used in the past as bargaining chips by armed groups in order to demand the release of prisoners or the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed in clashes and kept by Israel.
At the same time, witnesses and officials reported violent armed clashes during the night in Nablus, a large city in the northern West Bank from which a new gathering of young Palestinian fighters emerged in recent months, baptized in Arabic "Areen al- Oussoud”, (“The den of the lions”) in French.
"Ahmed Amjad Shehadeh, 16, lost his life after being hit in the heart by a bullet fired by the Israeli occupation forces during an operation in Nablus"
, a city in the north of the West Bank the scene of intense tensions these months, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a brief message, also reporting four injuries, one seriously.
Live ammunition
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it was carrying out an
"operation in the city of Nablus to secure the access of Israeli civilians to the Tomb of Joseph"
, a site revered by Jews as housing the remains of Joseph, the one of the sons of Patriarch Jacob, and considered by Palestinians to be the grave of a local Muslim religious figure.
"Armed suspects in the area are firing live ammunition at our forces who are responding with live ammunition
," the army added as Palestinian factions said their fighters were involved in the clashes.
In the wake of deadly attacks in Israel last March and April and other attacks that followed, the Israeli army carried out more than 2,000 raids in the West Bank.
These raids, and the clashes that are sometimes associated with them, have killed more than 125 Palestinians, the heaviest toll in seven years, according to the UN.
