Relatives mourn the death of Mahmoud Al Titi, a Hamas activist who was killed by Israeli soldiers in clashes, during his funeral procession in the Al Fawwar refugee camp in the West Bank town of Hebron, yesterday.
HEBRON: Israeli troops shot dead a Hamas activist and wounded two other Palestinians with live fire during a clash with stone-throwers near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian security officials said.
They named the dead man as Mahmoud Al Titi, 23, and said he was a member of the militant Islamic group.
The Israeli military said that soldiers entered the Al Fawwar refugee camp, close to the Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai, after Palestinians hurled rocks and petrol bombs at passing Israeli vehicles.
The area is frequently the scene of clashes between Palestinians on one side and Israeli soldiers and settlers on the other. “A violent riot erupted when they entered Al Fawwar and Palestinians hurled rocks at them,” an army spokeswoman said.
“When they considered their lives to be in imminent danger they fired toward the rioters, identifying hits,” she said, without saying how many. “Those that were in need of medical attention were evacuated to a (Palestinian) hospital where one of the suspects died.”
She said that the military was conducting an inquiry into the incident.
According to Palestinian officials, Titi was the sixth Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in clashes in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year. A seventh was killed on the Gaza-Israel border on January 11.
Palestinian medics said that one man was moderately wounded and one lightly hurt in Tuesday night’s clash in the camp, south of Hebron.
The death of another Hebron-area militant in Israeli custody last month sparked angry demonstrations across the West Bank in which dozens of Palestinians were injured in confrontations with Israeli forces.
Arafat Jaradat died in an Israeli prison, with Palestinian officials accusing Israeli interrogators of torturing him to death. Israel says the cause of death has yet to be determined.
Jaradat, a 30-year-old father of two, was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.AFP
