West Bank: Palestinian man killed in Israeli raid in Nablus, 13 injured, say Palestinian officials

CNN
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A Palestinian man was killed and 13 wounded in an Israeli raid in Nablus early Monday, Palestinian health officials said, in what Israeli authorities say was an operation to arrest holding suspects in the shooting death of an Israeli soldier last year.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Amir Ihab Bustami, 21, “was shot dead by Israeli occupation troops at dawn this morning in Nablus”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were wounded by live ammunition during the Nablus raid and seven others were injured “as the army pursued them”. The agency said one person was hospitalized and it has also handled 75 cases of tear gas inhalation.

The Israeli military said the overnight raid was in response to the killing of Ido Baruch in an attack near the occupied West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron on October 11, 2022.

“[Israeli forces] arrested the attackers Obkamel Guri and Asama Tuille, from Nablus, who carried out the gun attack that left Sergeant Ido Baruch killed,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement today. Monday. “The forces also arrested three more suspects who were with the attackers.”

Israeli forces exchanged gunfire with the suspects and confiscated two rifles from an apartment in Nablus, the IDF said, adding that two of the suspects were wounded in the raid.

Lion’s Den, a Palestinian militant group that emerged in Nablus last year, has claimed responsibility for Baruch’s murder. The group released a statement on Monday saying it lured Israeli soldiers into an ambush in Nablus and killed them, but there was no evidence to back that claim. The IDF said no Israeli injuries were reported in the raid.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces had “besieged one of the residential buildings” in Nablus and heavy gunfire and an explosion were heard.

Separately, the Israeli military has conducted air strikes in Gaza, targeting “an underground complex” in Hamas for the production of missiles, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. a statement early Monday. The airstrikes came after a rocket was launched from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, which the IDF said was intercepted.

Hamas confirmed in a statement that one of its sites was attacked in Western Gaza on Monday. Israeli warplanes “launched about 10 airstrikes targeting a resistance site,” the al-Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement early Monday, co time added that there were no casualties.

Following the attack, four rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel, according to a later IDF statement that said it had hit Hamas military posts in response.