Israeli forces kill teenager amid intensified raids in occupied West Bank

As Israeli forces increase their raids throughout the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian teenager has been killed and nine others have been injured in the Balata refugee camp.

Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer, 18, was shot dead at the camp, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, on Saturday during an overnight raid on the camp’s outskirts of Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Nine people are in&nbsp, “critical condition” after being wounded in the raid, which began on Friday night and triggered violent confrontations, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israeli soldiers “installed snipers on the rooftops of nearby buildings,” according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In a statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said that soldiers fired on “terrorists”, who had “hurled explosives, molotov cocktails and rocks, and shot fireworks at the forces”.

Since the Gaza Strip’s conflict broke out following Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, violence has gotten worse in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 815 Palestinians have been killed since then in the area by Israeli soldiers or settlers.

In the same period, Palestinian attacks in the occupied West Bank have killed at least 25 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures.

A Palestinian child named&nbsp was shot in the eye by bullet fragments on Friday during an Israeli military raid on homes in the town of Tuqu, which is located southeast of Bethlehem.

Additionally, Israeli forces raided three towns in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron region in separate raids.

Israeli soldiers established checkpoints in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, where they stopped cars and checked ID cards, according to local sources.

In ash-Shuyukh, north of Hebron, Israeli patrols removed Palestinian flags from streets in the town. Separately, soldiers detonated areas of the nearby refugee camp’s Arroub refugee camp.

Palestinian Authority raids

Since December, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has also been conducting raids in the Jenin refugee camp, located in the north of the territory, saying they want to crack down on the armed Palestinian resistance.

There have been clashes for weeks, with both civilians and members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces killed.

The Palestinian father and son’s family claimed responsibility for their deaths in the camp on Friday.

However, the PA’s security forces denied that their security forces were stationed in the area in a statement. Instead, they placed the blame on Jenin refugee camp fighters.

The militant group Jenin Battalion blames the Palestinian Authority for killing at least 16 Palestinian civilians since October 2023 in a statement.

Major Rashid Shaqo, a member of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, passed away on Friday in the camp as well.