This came in a statement from the ministry, shortly after the occupation army announced that it had shot two Palestinians who carried out a stabbing and car-ramming attack at the Gush Etzion junction, south of the West Bank.
The Ministry of Health said that the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs, an official contact with Israel, informed it of the “martyrdom of the young man Imran Ibrahim Al-Atrash (18 years old) from the city of Hebron, and the young man Walid Muhammad Sabarna (18 years old) from the town of Beit Ummar (north of Hebron), after the occupation forces opened fire on them south of Bethlehem.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an Israeli settler was killed and three others were injured, one of them critically, in a car-ramming and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction, south of the occupied West Bank. The two perpetrators of the attack, who were Palestinians, were killed.
The newspaper noted that an initial investigation by the Israeli army revealed that the two Palestinians tried to run over passersby at the Gush Etzion junction, then got out of the car, took out knives, and stabbed passersby.
It stated that "the suspicion that some of the injured were mistakenly shot by Israeli security forces is being investigated."
Immediately after the operation was announced, the Israeli army closed the entrances to Palestinian villages and stormed the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, where the young man Walid Sabarna lives, and the southern area of Hebron where the young man Imran Al-Atrash lives, according to eyewitnesses.
The occupation forces closed the home of the family of the martyr Walid Sabarna, in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and expelled them from it, and informed them not to return to the home, after welding it with a sheet of iron, and sealing it tightly.
During an earlier raid on the home, Israeli forces caused property damage and assaulted the family after interrogating them. According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, several residents suffered from tear gas inhalation after Israeli forces stormed the town of Beit Ummar, as a result of the army firing tear gas canisters during the raid on the Sabarna home.
Clashes erupted in the town, during which soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas, resulting in several residents suffering from tear gas inhalation. The occupation forces also prevented worshippers from leaving the Grand Mosque of Beit Ummar after the Maghrib and Isha prayers, according to the agency.
In a related context, on Tuesday evening, the occupation army stormed various areas of the West Bank and arrested a number of Palestinians, including the parents of two young men whom it had killed hours earlier, and also handed out notices to demolish civilian facilities.
In the southern West Bank, Wafa reported that the Israeli army distributed notices to demolish two houses, one of which is inhabited, an agricultural room, and a sheep farm in the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem.
In the central West Bank, the official news agency reported that the Israeli army arrested a young man in the village of Abu Qash, north of Ramallah. It added that "occupation forces stormed the village and arrested Maher Shriteh, from the village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Gharbiya, after raiding his shop."
As for the northern West Bank, it was reported that the Israeli army arrested a young man from the town of Al-Zawiya, west of the city of Salfit, after assaulting him while he was in the middle of the town, while the Voice of Palestine radio station (government-run) said that the army arrested “a group of citizens at the northern checkpoint of the city of Qalqilya.”
A child was shot and wounded by Israeli occupation forces last night in the town of Ya'bad, west of Jenin, while standing at a window of his home . The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that its crews transported a 14-year-old boy who had been shot in the head by Israeli forces. He was taken to Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, where his condition was described as critical.
The incident comes at a time when the West Bank is witnessing an unprecedented escalation in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, their property, and their livelihoods. The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate considered the attempts by settlers on Tuesday to bring offerings into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be a dangerous escalation.
The governorate said in a statement that eight settlers attempted to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound through the Lions' Gate, carrying livestock, three pigeons, and prayer items (tefillin). It added that the attempt "represents a dangerous escalation within the ongoing and escalating violations by settlers, and is not merely an individual incursion, but rather part of an organized campaign to desecrate and Judaize the holy site and impose new colonial realities in favor of the Israeli occupation."
The governorate warned that these violations "constitute blatant crimes and flagrant violations of all rules of international and humanitarian law and a clear attack on the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."
This brings the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army and settlers together to more than 1,076, in addition to about 10,700, and the arrest of more than 20,500 others, during the two years of the war of extermination in Gaza.
The Israeli genocide in Gaza began on October 8, 2023, and stopped two years later under a ceasefire agreement, after leaving more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at about $70 billion.