Israeli forces killed a Palestinian security officer during clashes in the occupied West Bank flashpoint city of Jenin on Monday, the Palestinian Fatah faction said in a statement.
The Israeli military said its forces had come under heavy Palestinian fire while seeking the arrest of security suspects in Jenin and had returned fire at the gunmen.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party identified the officer as Ashraf Sheikh Ibrahim, saying he had died “as he confronted the aggression and the occupation’s storming of the city of Jenin”.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade militant group, associated with Fatah, claimed him as a member.
In another part of the West Bank on Monday, Jewish settlers inaugurated a seminary in a settler outpost, drawing Palestinian condemnation and a reiteration of concern by the U.S.
In a video posted on social media, settler leader Yossi Dagan recited a Jewish benediction at the entrance to the Homesh seminary school, a large white prefabricated shack at the top of a West Bank hill.
“With God’s help … there will be many more new settlements in northern Samaria,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name. The new school was moved off privately owned Palestinian land to a new spot on the same hilltop around 150 metres away.
Repeating last week’s U.S. response, a State Department spokesperson said Washington was “deeply troubled” by the Israeli government’s recent order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost, calling it inconsistent with previous Israeli commitments.
“The expansion of settlements undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution, exacerbates tensions, and further harms trust between the parties,” the spokesperson said.
Reuters
