Israeli forces on Monday (January 30th) killed a Palestinian man driving a car in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army reported, saying they shot a fleeing driver .
Nassim Abou Fouda, 26, succumbed to his injuries after being "
shot in the head by Israeli occupation soldiers in Hebron this morning, Monday
", the Palestinian health ministry said. in a brief statement.
Official communications
The Israeli army said that its soldiers had asked the driver of "
a suspicious vehicle
" to stop in order to "
inspect
" it.
“
A soldier approached the vehicle and the driver hit his leg.
The soldiers fired at the vehicle which was trying to leave the scene.
The vehicle continued its course and then had an accident
,” the army said in a statement.
The driver was evacuated by Palestinian rescuers and declared dead, according to this source.
Read alsoIsrael: two injured in a new shooting in East Jerusalem, perpetrated by a 13-year-old Palestinian
According to the official Palestinian news agency, Nassim Abou Fouda was in a vehicle near the Ibrahimi mosque, also called the Cave of the Patriarchs, when soldiers posted at a military checkpoint fired live ammunition at him.
His remains were wrapped in a white shroud and his funeral took place at midday in Hebron, an AFP journalist noted.
Some 1,000 Jewish settlers live under strong Israeli military protection in the center of Hebron, a city populated by 200,000 Palestinians and the scene of frequent clashes.
Thirty-five Palestinians killed in 2023
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 35 Palestinians (including attackers, combatants, and civilians, including minors), six Israeli civilians (including one minor) and a Ukrainian.
On Friday, a 21-year-old Palestinian man fired at bystanders near a synagogue in the settlement neighborhood of Neve Yaakov in East Jerusalem, killing six Israelis and a Ukrainian woman.
On Saturday, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot and wounded two Israelis in Silwan, also in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian area occupied and annexed by Israel.
The new violence came against a backdrop of sharp escalation after the death of 10 Palestinians, including fighters and a woman in her 60s, in a Thursday raid by the Israeli army in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday to try to reduce tensions.
He is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and, on Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
CIA boss William Burns met with President Abbas on Sunday.
In 2022, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had claimed 235 lives, of which nearly 90% were Palestinians, according to the AFP count.
