By Ali Sawafta
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank on Wednesday, the local health ministry said, the third reported killed by Israeli forces in 24 hours in the occupied territory where there has also been a new spate of settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
The Palestinian Authority also reported a spike in moves by Jewish settlers to establish new footholds in the West Bank, saying they had erected tents in seven locations in the last 10 days in an unprecedented burst of activity.
Jewish settlement building has accelerated in the West Bank – territory Palestinians seek for a future state – since the start of the Gaza war, and violence has also surged there.
Jassem Ibrahim, 20, was killed when Israeli troops stormed his home in the village of Jit after midnight, said his cousin, Ahmed al-Sedda, describing a blood-stained mattress, blanket and pillow in his bedroom.
That followed the killing by Israeli forces of a 20-year-old Palestinian during a raid in Jericho on Tuesday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported. Another Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond for comment.
During the military’s months-long operation in the West Bank, settler attacks have picked up against Palestinian villages while new building has accelerated under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
RACIST SLOGANS
In their latest attack on Wednesday, Jewish settlers torched several vehicles in the village of Rammun, east of Ramallah, and daubed racist slogans on homes, Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
On Tuesday in the village of Qaryout near Nablus, residents said settlers had thrown stones at houses and torched cars.
Palestinians’ crops were torched during another attack on Tuesday in the village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah.
Attacks spiked earlier this month after a pregnant settler was killed by Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
The West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, was seized by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East war and has been under military occupation ever since.
Most countries consider settlements to be illegal.
Israel disputes that, citing historical and Biblical connections of the Jewish people to the area.
Amir Daoud, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activity, said settlers had pitched tents in seven locations – five near Ramallah, one in Jericho and another near Nablus – in the last 10 days. “This is an unprecedented and ongoing escalation,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military earlier this year launched its largest operation in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, or uprising, two decades ago. The operation, focused in the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, has displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the U.N.
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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