NABLUS: Israeli forces shot and wounded seven people in a raid on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said as the Israeli army confirmed an operation was underway.

The ministry reported “six minor injuries from live fire” reached a governmental hospital in Jenin, while another person shot had been admitted to a nearby hospital following the raid in the northern West Bank city.

A statement from the Israeli military said “security forces are currently operating in the Jenin (refugee) camp”, without giving further details.

There was no immediate confirmation of the identity of those wounded in Jenin, a hotbed for Palestinian armed groups.

Two Israeli men sustain injuries in east Jerusalem attack blamed on Palestinians

Frequent incursions by Israeli forces have led to clashes with local youth or militants, with at least 25 Palestinians killed in the city this year and no Israeli fatalities.

The latest raid comes amid a spike in violence in Israel and the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 war.

The conflict has claimed the lives of at least 96 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian this year, according to an AFP count based on Israeli and Palestinian official sources.

Two Israelis wounded

A suspected Palestinian gunman wounded two Israeli men near a Jewish site in annexed east Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli authorities said, with security forces conducting a manhunt for the perpetrator.

The shooting comes amid a period of deadly attacks and military raids across the occupied West Bank, along with killings in Israel.

Israeli police announced a suspected “shooting terror attack” in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem targeting two motorists, who according to medics were rushed to hospital.

“Police officers are at the scene conducting searches for the suspect who fled,” the force said in a statement.

Israeli security forces closed off streets in the neighbourhood, where an AFP journalist saw officers entering a Palestinian home, with a drone and helicopter as well as police dogs aiding the search.

Officers enforcing the shutdown prevented cars and people from moving in the centre of the neighbourhood, as heavily armed forces combed the area.

Police announced they had found the perpetrator’s gun near the scene of the attack, which took place near the tomb of Simeon the Just — Shimon Hatzadik in Hebrew — a site frequented by religious Jews. The weapon was identified as a Carlo makeshift submachine gun, which Palestinians manufacture in the West Bank.

Hadassah hospital said they received a 48-year-old gunshot victim lightly wounded, and Shaare Zedek medical centre said it was treating a man in his 50s in moderate condition.

Two-minute siren

The search was punctuated by a two-minute siren marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, honouring more than six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. Jerusalem mayor Moshe Lion, speaking at a city hall ceremony, said one of the Holocaust’s main lessons was “to never be helpless in the face of those seeking to harm us”.

Later in the morning, most of the security forces had left Sheikh Jarrah, with roads reopened and traffic flowing as normal, a journalist said.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2023