Israeli forces seriously wounded a Palestinian early on Wednesday during a military raid in the refugee camp of Dheisheh, south of Bethlehem. The 27-year-old victim is said to be Diaa Jaafari, a construction worker by trade, unmarried and a former prisoner in Israeli jails.
"Israeli forces entered Dheisheh around 6:30 am to arrest people," Mohammad Abu Ayash, the victim's neighbour, told The New Arab.
"Young men in the camp confronted the soldiers with stones for more than an hour, and Diaa came out at this same time," Abu Ayash detailed.
"Soldiers fired live bullets on their way out, hitting Diaa in the stomach," he added.
The Palestinian state news agency "Wafa" quoted medical sources at the Beit Jala hospital saying that Jaafari suffered injuries in his liver caused by the bullet exiting from his back. According to medical sources, he is undergoing critical surgery.
During the raid, Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians aged between 10 and 55, including a father and son. According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Israeli arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have increased.
"After a big wave of Israeli arrests, there was a brief decrease in the number of arrests in the few days of Joe Biden's visit," Ayah Shreiteh, spokesperson of the Prisoners' Club, told The New Arab.
"Since Biden's visit ended last Friday, the daily number of arrests increased again," she remarked. "Yesterday [Tuesday] there were 14 arrests, and today [Wednesday] 10 arrests were documented already."
The Israeli raid in Bethlehem comes less than a week after the city was highly-secured to welcome the US president. On Friday, some 1,500 Palestinian security forces were deployed to secure Joe Biden's visit and meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the city.