RAMALLAH, West Financial institution — A automotive ramming assault Monday close to a well-liked Jerusalem market wounded 5 individuals and the motive force was shot and killed, Israeli police stated, because the nation was set to memorialize its fallen troopers.
The assertion stated the motive force of the automotive was shot and killed on the scene close to the bustling, open-air Mahane Yehuda market. A 70-year-old man was in severe situation, police stated. It was the most recent bloodshed in a yearlong wave of near-daily violence that has gripped the area.
Hours earlier, the Palestinian Well being Ministry stated, Israeli forces working in a refugee camp within the occupied West Financial institution killed a Palestinian man.
The violence got here as Israel was set to mark its Memorial Day for fallen troopers and victims of militant assaults, starting at sunset Monday, adopted by its seventy fifth Independence Day the next night.
Beginning on Monday afternoon, Israel was set to shut off the West Financial institution and the Gaza Strip to all Palestinians wishing to depart aside from humanitarian {cases}, a closure anticipated to proceed till late Wednesday. Israel often tightens its restrictions on motion out of the West Financial institution and Gaza throughout holidays in what it says is a safety precaution.
The Magen David Adom medical service stated 5 injured individuals have been transferred from the scene of the automotive ramming to a hospital and {that a} 70-year-old man was in severe situation.
Earlier, the Palestinian Well being Ministry recognized the person who was killed by Israeli forces within the West Financial institution as Suleiman Ayesh Awaid, 20, and stated he was fatally shot within the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp. The camp has repeatedly been the scene of combating between Israeli troops and Palestinians in current months.
The Israeli navy stated it was working within the space when two suspects have been noticed fleeing. Troopers opened hearth and struck not less than one of many suspects.
Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has spiked over the past yr, after a bout of Palestinian assaults prompted Israel to launch near-nightly arrest raids into West Financial institution cities, villages and cities.
Israel says its raids are important to dismantle militant networks and thwart future assaults, however violence has proven no signal of abating. The Palestinians say the raids entrench Israel’s 56-year, open-ended occupation of lands they search for a future unbiased state.
Bloodshed has solely intensified because the begin of this yr. To date this yr, 95 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli hearth within the West Financial institution, in accordance with a tally by The Related Press, not less than half of them affiliated with militant teams. Throughout that point, 19 individuals have been killed in Palestinian assaults on Israelis.
Tensions have been notably excessive over the past month, as Muslims marked the holy month of Ramadan, which this yr coincided with the Jewish vacation of Passover. Earlier this month, an Israeli police raid on Muslim worshippers at a delicate Jerusalem holy website touched off rocket salvos from militants in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Syria, which Israel responded to with air strikes.
Additionally earlier this month, Palestinian gunmen killed three British-Israeli girls — a mom and two of her daughters — as they have been driving of their automotive within the West Financial institution. In a separate incident, an Italian vacationer was killed and 5 others have been wounded when a Palestinian-Israeli’s automotive careened onto a motorbike path close to the seaside in Tel Aviv in what authorities described as a suspected assault.