JENIN: Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed within hours in the Palestinian territory.
Violence in the West Bank, which had already been on the rise for more than a year, has worsened since the start of the war in Gaza, where health authorities said dozens more people had been killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes.
Yousef Nimer, who witnessed an overnight raid on the West Bank city of Jenin, said Israeli forces fired at people he was sitting with outside a hospital as they finished Suhur, the last meal before sunrise during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan.
"I told them, look, there is something coming towards us. We ran away, then a sniper started to shoot at us," said 16-year-old Nimer, who was wounded and pointed to a hole in one of the hospital's walls which he said had been made by a bullet.
"Some crawled and some ran away. The people who ran away got injured and those who crawled were saved."
Later on Wednesday, Israeli police said an armed civilian guard and a soldier had shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian suspected of a stabbing attack at a military checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Israel's ambulance service said two security personnel sustained mild to moderate stab wounds and were taken to hospital.
Israeli police said Israeli forces had overnight shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian from a refugee camp on Jerusalem's outskirts, and the Palestine Red Crescent said two other Palestinians had been killed at a checkpoint.
The police said the boy was shot after aiming fireworks at forces stationed in an observation post.
In the checkpoint incident, the police said five people were seen igniting explosives and intended to hurl them at the road, prompting Israeli forces to open fire and arrest the suspects. It did not confirm any deaths.
Israel has stepped up raids in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, with United Nations' records showing that at least 358 people have been killed there since Oct. 7. — Reuters
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