Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinian gunmen on Sunday, authorities say. Palestinians had allegedly opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the army said, in the latest bloodshed in a year-long wave of violence in the region. In addition, a fourth man, also armed, turned himself in and was arrested.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that three people were killed near the city of Nablus, though it did not immediately release their identities.
Sunday’s deaths bring to 80 the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year, as Israel has intensified detention raids in the West Bank. Palestinian attacks, meanwhile, have killed at least 14 people in the same period.
This violent outbreak follows an Israeli military raid last week in the West Bank village of Jaba, which killed three Palestinian militants. Hours later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a busy Tel Aviv thoroughfare at the start of the Israeli weekend, wounding three people before being shot dead.
The current round of violence is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank in years. It began last spring after a series of Palestinian attacks on Israelis sparked nightly Israeli raids on the West Bank.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied B’Tselem Territories. Palestinian attacks on Israelis during that same time killed 30 people.
The army says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But young people who threw stones in protest against the incursions and others who did not participate in the clashes have also been killed.
Israel says the raids are essential to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. The attacks, however, seem to intensify rather than subside.
Israel lived this Saturday a new day of massive demonstrations against the judicial reform promoted by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, within the framework of a protest movement that has been going on for 10 weeks and which, according to local media estimates, today concentrated more than 250,000 people. .
Like every Saturday for more than two months, the streets of Israel were today filled with demonstrators shouting “democracy, democracy” and “no to the dictatorship.”
They oppose a judicial reform promoted by Netanyahu and his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition allies, and which seeks to grant more power to the Executive to the detriment of Justice, whose independence would be profoundly weakened.
The main focus of the protests was again the city of Tel Aviv, which according to estimates concentrated more than 200,000 demonstrators.
On this occasion, the call for protests in the city of Haifa, in the north of the country, was also highlighted, to which more than 50,000 people would have attended.
Several thousand protesters also took to the streets in the cities of Jerusalem, Netanya, Ashdod, Raanana and Sderot, among many others.
In the city of Beer Sheva, in the south of the country, more than 8,000 people gathered, including the former prime minister and current opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who warned that “Israel is facing the greatest crisis in its history.”
The controversial judicial reform, which meanwhile is advancing in Parliament, includes projects such as the so-called “annulment clause”, which would allow a simple majority of deputies to repeal rulings issued by the Supreme Court.
Also included are initiatives that would give the government full control over the appointment of judges, in addition to allowing political officials to fill the posts of legal advisers in ministries.
The demonstrations this Saturday follow a massive day of protest last Thursday, with roadblocks in different parts of the country and even access to the Ben Gurion international airport.
That same Thursday, after complaining several times about the lack of a strong hand against the protesters, the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, announced that the head of the Tel Aviv Police, Amijai Eshed, would be removed from his post.
