Two Palestinians Shot Dead in West Bank

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians over an alleged stabbing attack in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said on Sunday that the victims of the attack in Huwara in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank were aged 17 and 23.

The Israeli regime’s military claimed that the slain Palestinians had stabbed an Israeli soldier, slightly wounding him, before being gunned down.

Some 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis in the recent wave of clashes between the two sides since the start of October, Press TV reported.

Tensions have dramatically escalated since the Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Palestinians say Tel Aviv seeks to change the status quo of al-Aqsa. They are also angry with Israeli extremists who, escorted by army forces, have stepped up their raids on the sensitive site, which is Islam’s third holiest after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has voiced concerns over the excessive use of force and “extrajudicial killing” of Palestinians by Israeli forces. The body says that the circumstances surrounding several of the Palestinian deaths over the past weeks remain disputed.