Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in occupied West Bank violence
Israeli soldiers leave after a raid at the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestine, May 22, 2023. (AFP Photo)


Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank continues to claim lives as three more Palestinians were killed in an overnight raid Monday, according to Palestinian sources.

In a statement Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry identified the three men killed in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus as Muhammad Abu Zaytoun (32), Fathi Abu Rizk (30) and Abdullah Abu Hamdan (24).

The Israeli army did not immediately comment when contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, said in a statement that the three were among the group's members.

Witnesses told AFP that Israeli forces raided several houses in the camp overnight in search of people wanted by the army.

Gunfire and loud explosions rocked the camp, the witnesses said, adding that a house was demolished.

The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Nearly 3 million Palestinians live there, along with about 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered to be illegal under international law.

A Palestinian woman checks her damaged building following an Israeli army raid at the Balata refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestine, May 22, 2023. (AFP Photo)
A Palestinian boy pulls a bicycle from under rubble at a house damaged during an Israeli raid, in Balata camp, Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestine, May 22, 2023. (Reuters Photo)

The latest deaths come just over a week into a fragile Gaza cease-fire after a five-day cross-border conflict between Israel and the Islamic Jihad armed group.

On Sunday night, an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in a car-ramming attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara near Nablus, the Israeli army said, adding that the vehicle fled the scene.

Since the start of the year, at least 153 Palestinians, 20 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources from both sides.