This is a developing story and we will update it with further details as they become available.
8.45am: Reports have emerged overnight that Basel Basbous may in fact be alive and injured. Jerusalem24 is still working to ascertain these claims.
Jerusalem24 – Two Palestinians were shot and killed and a third injured by Israeli forces in Al-Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah in the early hours of the morning.
According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, Israeli soldiers opened fire at the vehicle the three men were traveling in. The soldiers then proceeded to detain the three Palestinians – reports say they were initially injured but alive – and confiscated their car.
Video footage of the impounded car, however, doesn’t appear to show any visible damage to the vehicle.
Israeli authorities are withholding the bodies of the two young men, who have been named as 21-year-old Khaled Fadi Anbar and 19-year-old Basel Qassem Basbous. No further details are known about the condition of the injured man, named as 19-year-old Ra’afat Salameh Awoud Habash from Birzeit.
The Fatah Movement in the region of Ramallah and Al-Bireh announced this morning a general strike in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate in mourning for the Palestinians killed. Palestinian youth in Al-Jalazone camp and Ramallah have been marching through the streets, calling for a day of mourning and anger in Ramallah and Al-Bireh. All commercial outlets are closed.
Israeli media are reporting Israeli forces opened fire at the car after it allegedly attempted to ram a group of soldiers; local sources contradict this report, and claim the three men were left to bleed in the car for over half an hour.
Khaled Anbar’s father and Basel Basbous’ uncle said in an interview with Palestine TV this morning that the young men were returning home from work.
A report by Haaretz this morning quoted Palestinians skeptical of the Israeli army narrative, pointing out that this type of car-ramming attack is usually carried out by a single individual.
Confrontations had been ongoing in the northern Ramallah and Al-Bireh area since last night, after a group of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home near the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El at the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh. Following this incident, large numbers of Palestinian youth from Al-Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah and Al-Bireh walked down to Beit El to confront soldiers and settlers.
Confrontations also erupted overnight with local Palestinian youth after Israeli forces invaded the neighborhood of Al-Tireh in Ramallah and the center of Ramallah city, a rare occurrence.
Confrontations are currently ongoing in Al-Jalazone camp.
Israeli forces have now shot and killed a total of 99 Palestinians in the West Bank this year, including 26 children.
