Palestinian shot dead in West Bank: ministry

Palestinians perform prayers during a protest against settlements, in the occupied West Bank, yesterday.

Israeli forces yesterday shot dead a Palestinian man during clashes in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Zakaria Hamayel, 28, was struck by a bullet to the chest in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, during a protest against Israeli settlement expansion on Palestinian land, the ministry said. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. During the anti-settlement demonstration, some Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli soldiers, an AFP journalist said. On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the Al Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. Israeli forces have been carrying out arrests across the West Bank following violence that erupted around the 11-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s rulers Hamas that broke out on May 10 and ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce last week. More than 25 Palestinians were killed in clashes in the West Bank, where over 400,000 Israelis live alongside around 2.8mn Palestinians. The West Bank has been occupied since 1967, when the Israeli army captured it along with the Gaza Strip in the so-called Six-Day War. WHO SEEKS PATIENT ACCESS, EVACUATIONS The World Health Organisation (WHO) called yesterday for access to patients in the Gaza strip and free passage to evacuate them for medical treatment as health workers struggle to care for the sick and wounded after 11 days of violence, Reuters added. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a Geneva briefing that around 600 patients, including some with chronic conditions, needed to be referred outside of the Palestinian enclave since the start of the hostilities, but had been unable to due to crossing closures. “It’s very important that we help Palestinians get the care they need, especially helping them get treatment outside the Gaza strip,” she said. WHO has a presence on the ground, Chaib said, but was unable to confirm whether it currently had any access from the outside. Other aid agencies have complained about limited humanitarian access and drug supplies. Dozens of health centres were damaged during Israeli bombings earlier this month, prompting the WHO to warn that facilities risked being overwhelmed. “The capacity of the health system to respond is completely crushed,” Helen Ottens-Patterson, MSF head of mission in Gaza, told journalists earlier this week. In an indication of the challenges ahead, she said that an MSF team had to “wade through rubble and glass” to access a ministry of health compound earlier this week. Aid workers have also raised concerns about a possible surge in Covid-19 infections after the latest violence, since many people displaced by bombings were crowded together for shelter. Palestinians cheer during a Hamas rally in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday.