Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in West Bank as Gaza fighting rages

The people who ran away got injured and those who crawled were saved." Later on Wednesday, Israeli police said an armed civilian guard and a soldier had shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian suspected of a stabbing attack at a military checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Israel's ambulance service said two security personnel sustained mild to moderate stab wounds and were taken to hospital.

Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed within hours in the Palestinian territory. Violence in the West Bank, which had already been on the rise for more than a year, has worsened since the start of the war in Gaza, where health authorities said dozens more people had been killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes.

Yousef Nimer, who witnessed an overnight raid on the West Bank city of Jenin, said Israeli forces fired at people he was sitting with outside a hospital as they finished Suhur, the last meal before sunrise during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. "I told them, look, there is something coming towards us. We ran away, then a sniper started to shoot at us," said 16-year-old Nimer, who was wounded and pointed to a hole in one of the hospital's walls which he said had been made by a bullet.

"Some crawled and some ran away. The people who ran away got injured and those who crawled were saved." Later on Wednesday, Israeli police said an armed civilian guard and a soldier had shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian suspected of a stabbing attack at a military checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Israel's ambulance service said two security personnel sustained mild to moderate stab wounds and were taken to hospital. Israeli police said Israeli forces had overnight shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian from a refugee camp on Jerusalem's outskirts, and the Palestine Red Crescent said two other Palestinians had been killed at a checkpoint.

The police said the boy was shot after aiming fireworks at forces stationed in an observation post. In the checkpoint incident, the police said five people were seen igniting explosives and intended to hurl them at the road, prompting Israeli forces to open fire and arrest the suspects. It did not confirm any deaths.

Israel has stepped up raids in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, with United Nations' records showing that at least 358 people have been killed there since Oct. 7. Israel has also been exchanging fire with Iran-aligned Hezbollah across the border with Lebanon. Israeli and Hamas officials said an Israeli drone strike on a car outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday had killed a member of Hamas from the nearby Palestinian camp of Rashidieh.

GAZA DEATH TOLL RISES The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 31,000 people and wounded over 72,000, according to Gaza health authorities. In the latest fighting in Hamas-administered Gaza, the health ministry said Israeli military strikes had killed 88 Palestinians and wounded 135 in the previous 24 hours.

Residents and health officials said an Israeli strike had killed five Palestinians at a facility being used as an aid distribution centre by the main U.N. agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in Rafah on Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Juliette Touma, UNRWA Director of Communications, said an UNRWA facility had been hit in Rafah, where over a million displaced people are sheltering, but had no further details.

Israel's military did not immediately comment on the incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a statement on Wednesday that a Rafah ground invasion was essential to meeting the goals of the war. Israel's offensive has flattened much of Gaza and displaced most of its 2.3 million population, one-quarter of whom the U.N. says are a step away from famine.

A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in a pilot programme to open a sea corridor for the delivery of supplies to a population that aid agencies say is on the verge of famine after five months of war. While welcoming the project, senior U.N. and Palestinian officials said it cannot replace the delivery of humanitarian aid by land.

International mediation has failed so far to secure a ceasefire deal. Israel wants hostages released in exchange for Palestinians in its custody, and Hamas says any ceasefire agreement must end the war. A statement issued in the name of Palestinian factions on Wednesday reaffirmed that position.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)