Red Crescent says Israeli army gunfire wounds five in West Bank

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli military shot and wounded five people on Tuesday at a university campus in the occupied West Bank.

The reason for the intervention at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah was unknown. Contacted, the military said it was “looking into the matter.”

Military vehicles entered the campus late in the morning, according to several witnesses who spoke and whose accounts were confirmed by university president Talal Shahwan.

Videos posted to social media showed the intervention, while AFP journalists saw several military vehicles leave the campus, escorted by Israeli soldiers on foot.

The university’s communications department said that students had thrown stones at the army, adding that all of the wounded were students.

The Red Crescent said 11 people were wounded in total, including five from live ammunition, four through gas inhalation and two as a result of falls.

“Unfortunately, the university has been a recurring target, but this time the brutality crossed all limits,” Shahwan told a news conference.

The Israeli army had previously entered the campus several times. Palestinians consider the university to be one of the best in the territories.

In September 2024, the army confiscated property belonging to the student council, according to the university.

Since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, violence has also surged in the West Bank.

Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the territory, including many militants as well as dozens of civilians.

According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period in the West Bank.