Palestinian authorities announced early Friday morning that at least one West Bank citizen has been killed and two others wounded by Israeli army fire near a checkpoint in the town of Huwara, in the northern West Bank region of Nablus.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 47-year-old fatality was shot in the abdomen, chest and head. The wounded, who have been transferred to Nablus hospital, are in serious condition, with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and chest, Wafa news agency reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported in a message on its Twitter profile that its officers responded to «a shooting attack from a vehicle passing towards a military post».
«An IDF officer in the area identified two suspicious vehicles in the area and shot at them,» said the Army, which has assured that there are no casualties in the military corps.
«During the raids on the (checkpoint) post, several backpacks were found. IDF forces are searching for additional suspects in the area,» the institution added.
The attack has occurred about an hour after the Israeli Army announced that it was opening several entrances to Nablus, a region that has been under a tight military cordon since October 12, reports Israeli newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
«Following an assessment of the situation, it was decided to change the method of restricting movement in the Nablus area and some entrances to the city will be opened tonight,» an IDF spokesman had warned in a statement sent shortly after midnight.
However, it is unknown whether the Huwara checkpoint was among those entrances to the city included in the decision to ease the blockade of the city.
The decision to lift the movement restriction has come after Jerusalem claimed to have made «significant gains» against the Palestinian armed group ‘Lion’s Den’ in the West Bank.
Israeli troops carried out an operation in Nablus on Tuesday, after which five Palestinians were killed and 20 others were wounded, three of them seriously.
The IDF subsequently explained that they had raided an apartment which they attribute to the Lion’s Den armed group, killing the alleged leader of the group «and other armed men» and destroying a bomb factory.
