Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank, raid Tulkarm and Jenin

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in two separate incidents on Thursday, amid continued raids on towns and villages in the occupied West Bank.

In Tulkarm, an Israeli sniper positioned inside a house shot and killed 22-year-old Harith Muhammad Awfi, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Eyewitnesses said Awfi was shot in the heart by the sniper as he stood in a courtyard. Local volunteers brought him to a Red Crescent ambulance outside of the camp, as Israeli forces prevented the vehicle from entering.

Earlier in the day, Israeli drone strikes on the camp injured five people, including a woman and her disabled son.

A man was also shot in the leg by Israeli forces while he rode a motorcycle.

Israeli forces have bulldozed a number of buildings in the camp, while deploying soldiers and military vehicles around the area.

Clashes have taken place in Tulkarm between the army and Palestinian fighters, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigade saying it had targeted military vehicles with explosives.

In Jenin, Israeli forces killed 50-year-old Abdullah al-Saadi, a brigadier-general the Palestinian General Intelligence service.

Al-Saadi was shot in front of his home amid a raid on the Harsh al-Saada area, local sources told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Al-Saadi was pronounced dead after being taken to the Ibn Sina Hospital.

Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin at dawn on Thursday, after a day of continuous raids on the city and camp.

Several Palestinians were arrested in the raids across the occupied West Bank.

Israel has stepped up raids on the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023. According to the The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, more than 11,600 people have been detained in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in that period.

Israeli settlers have also stepped up attacks on Palestinians, and in recent weeks have harassed farmers harvesting olives.

Settlers accompanied by police dogs threatened farmers at gunpoint in the village of Shofa and stole some of their harvest, Wafa reported.

In the town of Kafr al-Labad, Israeli forces expelled farmers from their lands while they were harvesting olives.