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The
Palestinian health ministry said a 36 year-old man died after
being shot in the head by Israeli forces in the town of Aqabah
in the Jordan Valley, while another man was wounded by gunfire.
The Israeli military said there was an exchange of fire with
gunmen during the operation and its forces hit one of those who
was firing. However, local witnesses said the dead man had not
been involved in the clashes but was in a nearby field when he
was hit by a bullet.
The military said soldiers and border police surrounded a house
in Aqabah, using shoulder-fired rockets and grenades against the
building and later finding two improvised explosive devices
inside. It said they arrested two wanted suspects.
Witnesses said the house was extensively damaged with a large
hole blown into an external wall, parts of an interior wall
blown away and debris strewn across a sitting room.
The West Bank has seen a wave of violence over the past 18
months, with a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians on
Israelis, brazen attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian towns
and villages and stepped up raids by the Israeli military.
On Thursday, a Palestinian truck driver killed an Israeli
soldier in a ramming attack near a checkpoint on the boundary
with the West Bank.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and hundreds have
been killed since last year, mainly gunmen or fighters involved
in clashes with Israeli troops but also including several
uninvolved civilians.
In the same period, dozens of Israelis and a number of
foreigners have been killed in Israel and the West Bank, which
Palestinians want as the core of a future state but which has
been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; writing by James Mackenzie; Editing
by Kim Coghill)
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