Israeli police killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, in what the army and a Palestinian official described as a confrontation.
The member of Huwara government, Wajeh Odeh, told AFP that the shooting followed a “conflict”.
“An Israeli soldier pushed the Palestinian to the ground and shot him from a distance,” Odeh said.
The incident was captured on video and broadcast widely on television. It showed an Israeli soldier holding a Palestinian man by the head in the street while two other men tried to fight him. The man is then seen punching the officer and trying to grab his gun before the officer pulls out a handgun and shoots him several times as he falls to the ground.
Heavily armed border guards were deployed along the road following the incident, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
The Palestinian Red Crescent told AFP its medics “were prevented from dealing with an injured person who was later pronounced dead”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine has said that it is tantamount to killing people who want to increase the violence that has already started in the occupied territory.
For their part, Israeli police said that border guards approached several suspects in the Palestinian city of Huwara when someone “pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them”.
Guards “responded by shooting at a suspect and restraining him,” police said in a statement, before confirming to AFP that a Palestinian had been killed.
There are regular patrols by the Israeli army through the town of Huwara, which runs through the main road south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Israeli police said one of its officers was slightly injured.
They are ‘very concerned’ about violence
The shooting marks the ninth Palestinian killed since Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, mostly in clashes with Israeli forces.
In another incident, a man was shot after he ran after an officer in a car that was allegedly hit.
The recent escalation of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has alarmed the world.
In Washington, the spokesman for the State Department, Ned Price, said that the United States was “deeply concerned” by the violence taking place in the West Bank, referring in particular to the plight of children.
“We also emphasize the need for all parties to do everything they can to reduce the situation. It is important for the parties to take immediate action to prevent large-scale deaths,” Price told reporters.
On Monday, the United Nations envoy for peace in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, warned that the situation in the West Bank is “getting worse”.
At least 145 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed so far this year across the West Bank, Israel and Jerusalem.
The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made 2022 the deadliest year since the end of the Second Intifada in 2005. Further escalation is possible, as the most right-wing and secular government in Israel’s history is set to be installed in the coming days or weeks, with Prime Minister Former Benjamin Netanyahu is back in power.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War.
The US ambassador to Palestine, Hady Amr, on Wednesday said that Washington is “well aware of the tragic death” in the Palestinian territories.
Those killed in recent months include Israeli soldiers, Palestinian soldiers and many civilians.
49 Palestinians were killed in just three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip last August.
