Palestine’s Health Ministry says 50 Palestinians killed by Israelis since beginning of current year

The Palestinian Health Ministry says 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the current year, amid a flare-up of tensions between the Palestinians and the usurping regime in the occupied territories.

In a statement, carried by Palestine’s official Wafa news agency, the ministry on Monday published the names of 50 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers since January, 49 of them from the occupied West Bank and one from the besieged Gaza Strip.

The list included two women, 24-year-old Maha Zaatari from al-Khalil (Hebron) and 47-year-old Ghada Sabatin from Bethlehem, who were killed by the regime’s forces on April 10.

One of the oldest Palestinians in the list was 80-year-old Omar Assad from Ramallah who was killed on January 13. The youngest victim was 13-year Quasi Hamamreh from the same city who was shot dead on April 13.

Several other teenage Palestinians are in the list, including 14-year-old Mohammad Salah from Bethlehem who was shot dead on February 22.

According to the statement, the list included 25 Palestinians in their 20s, four in their 30s, three in their 40s, and two in their 80s.

The one from the besieged Gaza Strip was 27-year-old Mahmoud Arram who was killed on Sunday in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarm.

Israeli regime has escalated its deadly attacks against Palestinians in the run-up to Ramadan and sustained the violence throughout the holy fasting month, stirring up anti-Tel Aviv sentiments throughout the occupied territories.

The Israeli regime has also ramped up its violent attacks on Palestinian worshipers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds in recent weeks.

Israel demolishes 2 Palestinian-owned houses in West Bank

Separately on Monday, Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian-owned houses in the village of Beit Dajan, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Wafa said in a separate report.

It added that both houses were in the construction stage and that they were demolished under the pretext of lacking construction permit, which is almost impossible to obtain.

According to Tawfiq al-Haj Mohammad, the head of Beit Dajan village council, Israeli soldiers raided the village guarding bulldozers which proceeded to demolish the two houses.

Israel regularly flattens Palestinian homes and structures in al-Quds on the pretext that they lack building permits, expropriating more Palestinian lands to expand its illegal settlements.

The international community considers Israeli settlement construction illegal under international law.  

Nearly 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.

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