Israeli forces kill prominent Palestinian leader during Jenin raid

Prominent Palestinian leader Daoud al-Zubaidi has died of his wounds after he was shot by Israeli forces during a raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
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More than a dozen Palestinians were killed during the Israeli raid on Jenin [Getty]

Palestinian leader Daoud al-Zubaidi died on Sunday from wounds suffered during a shootout with Israeli forces two days ago in the flashpoint Jenin refugee camp, the Israeli hospital treating him said.

Daoud al-Zubaidi, 43, was shot in his abdomen during an Israeli raid on Friday at the camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Jenin area has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces for weeks during escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

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Zubaidi was taken to a hospital in Jenin in critical condition and from there transferred to Rambam hospital in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

A Rambam spokesman told AFP that Zubaidi had "died of his wounds" on Sunday morning.

Zubaidi was a brother of Zakaria al-Zubaidi, who had headed the armed wing of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and briefly escaped from Israeli prison last year.

Daoud al-Zubaidi was himself considered to be a prominent leader in Jenin.

At least 12 other Palestinians were wounded during Israel's Friday operations in and around Jenin, which also claimed the life of an Israeli special forces police officer.

Israel's army said it targeted Jenin on Friday because many of the perpetrators in a wave of anti-Israeli attacks over the past few weeks came from the area. Its forces shot and killed prominent Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was there to cover the raid. 

Her death, which occurred while she was on duty and clearly identifiable in a press jacket, and the subsequent Israeli violence at her funeral, has sparked outrage worldwide.