Israeli troops kills two Palestinians, raid West Bank homes, and expel residents

Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinians in the West Bank, including a teenager, who they accuse of carrying out separate attacks on Israeli soldiers in the occupied territory.

Israeli forces killed 17-year-old Muhannad Tariq Mohammad al-Zughair in Hebron amid a raid late Monday that followed a suspected car ramming attack in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, injuring a soldier, according to The New Arab's sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Al-Zughair was reportedly shot and killed by soldiers as he drove away. Images shared online showed the car's windows shattered due to gunfire, with the Israeli army confirming that it killed al-Zughair in a joint operation with the Shin Bet intelligence service.

"Israeli forces spotted the perpetrator inside his vehicle in Hebron. After surrounding him, he attempted to flee, which the forces considered a 'direct threat,' so they opened fire and killed him at the scene," the army said.

Israeli authorities are withholding the 17-year-old’s body, an Israeli policy that has long been decried by Palestinians as a form of collective punishment.

Amid the incident, Israeli forces closed several checkpoints and gates leading to Hebron, stormed several hospitals, and manned their entrances.

On Tuesday, the military killed 18-year-old Mohammad Ruslan Mahmoud Asmar from the town of Beit Rima, north of Ramallah, after he was suspected of stabbing two soldiers in the illegal settlement of Ateret.

Asmar was reportedly confronted by soldiers in the settlement before the attack.

The soldiers were lightly wounded following the incident, Israel’s Magen David rescue service stated.

The Israeli army went on to withhold the Palestinian teenager’s body, while his death was confirmed by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Eyewitnesses told Palestinian media that the Israeli army closed all entrances to the city of Ramallah following the incident, causing traffic congestion and disrupting morning routines.

Settlers erect new outpost near Jerusalem

Israeli settlers on Monday started building a new outpost in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, north of occupied Jerusalem.

The Al-Baydar human rights organisations said that settlers erected structures at the site "in a move that is part of settlement expansion attempts that threaten agricultural lands and Palestinian communities in the area".

The NGO slammed the move, and said that "the continuation of such actions increases tension, undermines the stability of the residents, and restricts their access to their lands", before calling on the international community and other rights groups to intervene in monitoring "this illegal expansion" and to "work to protect" Palestinians and their land.

According to data from the Palestinian Authority's Commission against the Wall and Settlements, settlers established 114 settlement outposts as of October this year, since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Hundreds more settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law, have been erected in the West Bank after Israel began occupying the Palestinian territory in 1967.

Raids continue, Palestinian homes demolished

Several raids were also carried out on Tuesday with the Israeli military continuing its incursion into Tubas and the surrounding areas, which comes days after a violent military operation in the area.

The West Bank town's entrances remain closed as soldiers raid homes and convert them into military barracks, witnesses told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Israeli forces went on to demolish a Palestinian home in the process, deploying bulldozers and military reinforcements. Aqaba mayor Abdul-Razzaq Abu Ara confirmed that Israeli forces demolished the two-story, 180-square-metre home of prisoner Ayman Najeh Ghanem.

The Israeli military also led an incursion into the town of Nablus, deploying significant military vehicles to the area surrounding the Zawata roundabout.

Forces closed all entrances to the roundabout before forcing seven Palestinian families out of at least 13 residential buildings in preparation for the demolition of another Palestinian home.

The Israeli military detonated the home of prisoner Abdul Karim Sanoubar, who was arrested in February after being accused of being behind a series of bombings targeting buses in Israel.

Israeli forces are intensifying their raids and violent attacks in the occupied West Bank, in parallel with a fragile ceasefire in the war-battered Gaza Strip. The military began escalating military operations, arrests, and incursions as the war in Gaza began over two years ago.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,085 Palestinians in the West Bank over this period, in addition to arresting thousands more.