Jerusalem24 – The last 24 hours in the West Bank have seen a sustained rate of violent events not witnessed since 2015.
Speculation is rife in Israeli media as to whether this seeming culmination of several consecutive weeks of increased operations in the West Bank is heading towards a new Intifada.
Last night, following a shooting attack earlier in the day on a settler bus in the Jordan Valley in which six Israeli soldiers and one civilian were injured, Israeli authorities decided to raise the level of alert throughout the West Bank and Israel. Israeli Channel 12 indicated that additional forces would be deployed.
Here is a timeline of events of the last 24 hours:
- Sunday around 12:50pm, assailants in a car shoot at a settler bus on Route 90 close to the settlement of Hamra in the occupied Jordan Valley, injuring six Israeli soldiers and a civilian.
- Sunday afternoon, Israeli forces seal the roads leading to the village of Atouf, close, to the site of the shooting, with dirt mounds.
- Around 9.30pm, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles with stones on the Huwara-Qalqilya road, south of Nablus.
- Around 11.00pm, shots are fired towards Israeli soldiers at the Al-Jalameh checkpoint in Jenin; no injuries are reported.
- At 11.11pm, a locally manufactured explosive device is fired at an Israeli military tower near the village of Nabi Saleh north of Ramallah; four Israeli soldiers are injured.
- At around 11.50pm, Palestinians throw stones toward an Israeli settler’s vehicle traveling at E’youn Al-Haramiya road near Route 60, north of Ramallah.
- Around 00.28am shots are fired towards Israeli soldiers at the Beit Furik checkpoint, east of Nablus; no injuries are reported.
- Around 00:30am, shots are fired at Ofra military prison near Beitunia southwest of Ramallah; no injuries are reported.
- Around 00.40am, Molotov cocktails target Israeli forces post near the village of Biddu’s southern entrance, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem.
- Around 1.25am, Israeli forces fire flares over the illegal settlement of Beitar west of Bethlehem and conduct a search, due to a suspected “infiltration” of a Palestinian.
- Before dawn on Monday: exchange of gunfire in Qabatiya village south of Jenin.
- Before dawn, Taher Zakarna, 19 years old, is shot dead by Israeli forces during confrontations in Qabatiya.
- Around 10.00am, a car-ramming attempt is reported near the illegal settlement of Beduel west of Salfit; no injuries.
- Around 10.30am Monday morning, Israeli settlers surround and “detain” Palestinian farmers on their lands in the village of Kafr Al-Dik, west of Salfit. According to WAFA, the settlers operated under the protection of Israeli forces.
- Around 11.40am, Israeli forces close the entrance to Beit Anoun refugee camp north of Hebron, the site of an alleged stabbing attack on Friday in which Israeli soldiers shot and killed 19-year-old Fadi Ghattas.
- Around 1.00pm, Israeli forces close the tunnel linking the towns of Biddu and Al-Jeeb northwest of occupied East Jerusalem.
- Clashes erupt Monday afternoon between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces at Jabal Al-Tawil in Al-Bireh, close to the illegal Israeli settlement of P’sagot.
Ehab Tahboub and Noelle Mafarjeh contributed additional reporting to this piece.
