Israeli fire kills another Palestinian in West Bank as deadly 2023 continues

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. The Palestinian health ministry identified the man as 42-year-old Tariq Maali.

The latest killing puts at 18 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023.

The Israeli military claimed the man tried to stab an Israeli settler at the Sde Efraim farm settlement. Israeli media alleged he was armed with a knife and that the settler shot him.

The army told AFP that a civilian shot dead the Palestinian.

An AFP photographer saw Israeli forces preventing a Palestinian ambulance from accessing the site.

According to Israeli anti-settlement movement Peace Now, the farm is known as a wildcat settlement, an outpost not recognised even by Israel.

All settlements, including those with Israeli recognition, are considered illegal under international law.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government, plans to pursue a policy of increased settlement expansion in the West Bank, and Jewish supremacist parties in his coalition advocate the annexation of some of the territory.

Israel regularly uses deadly and excessive force against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B'Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.

Near-daily deadly Israeli raids have increased in the West Bank since the beginning of this year.

On Thursday, a Palestinian teacher who was giving first aid to another injured man was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Jawad Bawaqneh, 57, was killed outside his family home during an Israeli raid in the refugee camp area of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Note: This video relates to a separate incident of a Palestinian being killed

The teacher's son, Farid Bawaqneh, said that Jabareen was shot outside the family house and that he and his father went out to help him.

"My father went out to help the man, to provide first aid," Bawaqneh told Reuters.

"We dragged him inside and my father was shot," Bawaqneh said, pointing at his upper body while standing at a doorway with a blood-stained floor.

(AP, AFP, Reuters)