Israeli forces have killed at least two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and a third person in Jerusalem.
This comes as tensions have soared following last week’s release of Donald Trump’s highly controversial deal with Israel, which backs the Israeli government’s position on nearly all of the most contentious issues in its decades-old occupation of Palestine. Palestinians were quick to reject the plan.
Trump-Israel plan ‘responsible for increasing violence’
The plan would allow Israel to annex all of its illegal settlements and large parts of the occupied West Bank – sparking calls from Israeli nationalists to do so immediately.
In return, the deal would grant Palestinians limited autonomy in scattered enclaves surrounded by Israel, but only if they met nearly impossible conditions.
The Trump plan “created this environment of tension and escalation”, Nabil Abu Rdeneh (a spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas) told the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
Deaths and injuries
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
Palestinian hospital officials said a 19-year-old had died in clashes in the West Bank city of Jenin. Six others were wounded.
In a separate incident in Jenin, Israeli troops shot and killed a member of the Palestinian security forces.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during clashes with demonstrators elsewhere in the West Bank.
Israeli police also claimed they had shot and killed an Arab citizen of Israel who opened fire at forces in Jerusalem’s Old City, lightly wounding an officer.
Early on Wednesday, meanwhile, a Palestinian motorist had slammed his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, wounding 12 before fleeing the scene, the Israeli military said. While not claiming responsibility for the attack, one militant group called this “the beginning of a new confrontation over Trump’s plan”.
