Palestinian Authority officer killed by Israeli forces in Jenin

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man and injured others during an overnight raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Monday that 37-year-old Ashraf Mohammad Ameen Ibrahim had died from gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach.Ibrahim was an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence services, according to the authority’s news agency, Wafa.

Hundreds of residents attended a funeral procession held for him hours after he was pronounced dead, and local officials in Jenin announced a daylong general strike.

The Israeli army raid began at 1:30am on Monday (22:30 GMT on Sunday) and lasted until 6am (03:00 GMT), during which fighting between soldiers and Palestinian armed resistance fighters broke out. It is unclear whether or how Ibrahim was involved in the fighting.

At least eight other Palestinian men were injured with live ammunition and six were arrested during the raid, during which Israeli snipers were stationed on rooftops, Wafa reported. The homes of those arrested were ransacked, local media images and videos showed.Israeli forces carry out near-nightly raids on Palestinians in the occupied territories, often arresting multiple people.

They conducted military operations across the occupied West Bank overnight, arresting at least nine others in Nablus, Ramallah, Qalqilya and Hebron.

Ibrahim was a former prisoner who spent 11 years in Israeli prisons. He was arrested in 2006 and released in 2012 before being arrested again in 2014 and released in 2019, according to Palestinian prisoner groups.

Israel stepped up its raids in the West Bank starting in June 2021 to crack down on Palestinian resistance to its occupation, which was centred in the cities of Jenin and Nablus.In 2022, Israeli forces killed more than 170 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in what was described as the deadliest year for Palestinians living in those areas since 2006.Since the start of 2023, Israeli forces have already killed at least 158 Palestinians, including 26 children, according to Wafa. The death toll also includes 36 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army during a four-day assault on the besieged Gaza Strip from May 9 to 13.

On January 26, Israeli troops killed 11 Palestinians in an attack on the Jenin refugee camp.