Palestinian man killed by Israeli gunfire in northern occupied West Bank

By Aysar Alais

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Palestinian man was killed on Saturday by Israeli army gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its teams in the Jenin city transported Hussein Abdul Qader Khudur, who succumbed to a gunshot wound to the thigh.

Khudur, 24, was shot near the Israeli separation wall between the villages of Faqqua and Arabbuna, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

Since the start of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has prohibited Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank from entering their workplaces and has closed border crossings between Israel and the West Bank.

Facing severe economic hardship, some Palestinian workers have attempted to scale the separation wall using ladders or access breaches in its sections to reach their jobs. These attempts are often met with Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition at them.

The General Federation of Palestinian Workers estimates that approximately 225,000 Palestinian workers were employed in Israel before last October, but all have been left unemployed since the start of the war on Gaza.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank over Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, where more than 45,100 people, mostly women and children, have been killed.

At least 823 Palestinians have since been killed and around 6,500 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi