Palestinians: Two Killed in West Bank Clashes With Israeli Army

Two Palestinians were killed on Monday morning during violent clashes with the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the clashes began after IDF soldiers entered the city in to conduct arrests. The two dead Palestinians were later identified as Muhammed Nasser-Said and Muhammed Abu-Bakher, who is a staff member of a senior Fatah official.

According to the IDF spokesperson, army forces operated to arrest three wanted Palestinians and “came under fire during the raid and shot back”, confirming “hits.”

Several units from the IDF and border police were operating at two different locations in Nablus, where they arrested several individuals linked to last week’s attack in Hawara that left two IDF soldiers injured. This was the third shooting incident from Hawara within the last month.

In March, following a Palestinian shooting that killed two Israelis, hundreds of settlers entered Hawara and began throwing rocks at houses and setting houses, trees and cars in the village on fire. Seventy homes were affected; some were damaged or destroyed by fire, others looted or damaged in other ways and 90 cars were torched. The rioters injured dozens of Palestinians with rocks and iron rods and one man, 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash was killed by gun shot wounds to the stomach.

Last Monday, Israeli settlers again descended upon Hawara and injured six Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The U.S. has tried to broker talks between Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians to try to defuse tensions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, now in its second week.

At least 88 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli or settler gunfire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period.