Israeli citizen found dead after shooting in Palestinian city in West Bank

FILE – Israeli forces recover the body of a man killed during a military operation in the West Bank town of Qabatiya, Thursday, June 13, 2024. An Israeli citizen was found shot dead in a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning, the Israeli army said, as violence in the occupied territories increases. Violence has flared up again in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out last October. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — An Israeli citizen was found shot dead in a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning, the Israeli army said, as violence in the occupied territory increases.

The army said the man was declared dead after fatal shooting in the town of Qalqilya and that Israeli troops were currently deployed in the area. Saturday’s announcement came a day after Israeli forces shot dead two militants in the same West Bank town.

No further details were released.

Violence has flared up again in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out last October. Since then, at least 549 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the area, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which tracks the killings. During the same period, Palestinians in the West Bank killed at least nine Israelis, including five soldiers, according to the UN.

Israeli citizens are prohibited from entering Qalqilya and other areas of the West Bank under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

In April, the death of a 14-year-old Israeli settler sparked a series of settler attacks on Palestinian towns in the territory. The army said the boy was murdered and later arrested a Palestinian in connection with the killing.

In 2014, tensions escalated following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, eventually leading to a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the bloodiest wave of fighting between the two sides to date.

In recent years, the Palestinian Authority’s influence in the northern West Bank has declined as militant groups there have become increasingly powerful.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, when Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Israel responded by bombing and invading the enclave, killing over 37,400 Palestinians there, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians want these territories as part of their hoped-for independent state.