Palestinian killed in Israeli arrest raid in West Bank

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed an 18-year-old Palestinian man and wounded three others during clashes near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said that the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Three others, including a 16-year-old boy, were wounded by gunfire, it said in a statement. An earlier report by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the slain man was 21 years old.

The Israeli military said its troops conducted arrest raids in the northern West Bank and detained 12 Palestinians. It said Palestinians “fired live ammunition at the soldiers and hurled rocks and explosive devices at them” and the soldiers returned fire.

The army said troops also administered a demolition order for the home of the gunman who killed three and injured dozens in a Tel Aviv shooting earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man during a raid near the West Bank city of Jericho.

Wednesday’s incident came after days of rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinians following a string of deadly attacks inside Israel, arrest raids in the West Bank, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, and rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for the first time in months.

Israel captured east Jerusalem — which includes major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims — along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three territories to form their future state.