Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who allegedly rammed his car into a soldier in the southern West Bank on Thursday, the army said, the latest in a string of violence in recent days.
The military said the Palestinian driver struck an Israeli soldier near the West Bank settlement of Negohot, south of Hebron. A second soldier at the scene shot the driver, who died of his wounds.
Paramedics said the Israeli soldier suffered moderate injuries and was hospitalized.
Palestinians burn a cutout of the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a protest against his visit to Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump's Mideast initiative, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, May 23, 2020.(AP PhotoMajdi Mohammed)
In recent years, Israel has seen car-ramming attacks, shootings, and stabbings carried out mostly by lone Palestinian attackers with no apparent links to armed groups.
On Tuesday, an Israeli soldier was killed when a rock thrown off a rooftop struck him in the head during an arrest raid in the West Bank.
The following day, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a clash with stone-throwers in the southern West Bank.
Palestinians burn a cutout of the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a protest against his visit to Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump's Mideast initiative, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, May 23, 2020.(AP PhotoMajdi Mohammed)
The deadly violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising to move forward with his new government to annex parts of the West Bank. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Jerusalem on Wednesday and held talks with Netanyahu about the annexation plans.
The Palestinians strongly oppose annexation. Several protesters rallied in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, burning a cutout image of Pompeo and denouncing President Donald Trump’s Mideast initiative, which starkly favors Israel.
The violence also comes on the eve of Palestinian commemorations of their “naqba,” or catastrophe, on Friday. Every year on May 15, the Palestinians remember the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.