Palestinian killed in clashes with Israelis in West Bank
A Palestinian was killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara, where renewed violence during his funeral left nine others hospitalised.
The northern West Bank town has this year witnessed several fatal shootings by Palestinians against Israelis and reprisal attacks by hundreds of Jewish settlers targeting locals and their property.
In the latest deadly incident, the Palestinian health ministry said 19-year-old Labib Dmidi "was shot in the heart by settlers".
Mayor Moin Dmidi told AFP the Palestinian teenager had sought refuge on the roof of his house, which was being attacked by settlers, when one of them shot him dead.
Another resident of the town, Abderrahman Dmidi, said the attack took place as settlers descended on Huwara overnight.
"More than 200 settlers gathered in the middle of Huwara after midnight, shouting and dancing, some of them with covered faces," he told AFP.
"They began throwing stones towards some houses, and then the young people... tried to defend their homes by throwing stones," he added.
The confrontation came after the Israeli army said soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who had opened fire on a car stuck in traffic at a junction adjacent to Huwara late on Thursday, without hitting any of the Israeli civilians inside.
- 'Settler militias' -
The army said dozens of Israeli civilians gathered in Huwara and engaged in stone-throwing clashes with Palestinians, before soldiers intervened with "riot dispersal means to defuse the confrontation".
It said a suspect "threw a block at an Israeli vehicle", prompting soldiers to respond with live fire. It added that "a hit was identified".
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it treated 58 people at the scene of the clashes who had suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Israel's military said it had received reports "regarding vandalism of the properties of Palestinian residents of the town by Israeli civilians".
The United Nations Middle East peace envoy condemned the attacks by settlers and called on Israel to protect civilians.
"I'm outraged by the continued incitement, provocations, and lack of accountability for these violent crimes," Tor Wennesland said in a statement.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm, the Israeli government includes far-right senior ministers who live in West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the events in Huwara, referring to them as a "heinous crime committed by a hateful and racist settler", demonstrating the "perpetuation of crimes and attacks by organised settler militias against our people".
As mourners took part in the funeral procession for Dmidi, an AFP photographer saw clashes break out between Palestinians and Israeli troops.
Heavily armed members of the security forces, accompanied by multiple vehicles, roved around Huwara while smoke billowed and stones littered the streets.
Nine people were hospitalised with wounds from rubber bullets or live fire, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said, and 19 others were treated in Huwara after being hit by rubber bullets.
In February, dozens of Israeli settlers set fire to numerous buildings in Huwara after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in the town.
A surge in violence has hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
There has been a rise in army raids, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property.
So far this year at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners have been killed in the conflict, including combatants and civilians on both sides, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
