Israeli troops kill young Palestinian after alleged stabbing

Israeli troops have shot and killed a young Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, bringing the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year to 19. 

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man shot on Wednesday as 20-year-old Aref Abdel Nasser Lahlouh.

The Israeli military claimed that the man was carrying a knife and was shot after he attempted to attack a soldier at a military post.

The Israeli army released a CCTV video it said was of the incident, in which a man emerges from a car at a bus stop, apparently brandishing something in his hand. 

The footage shows the man running at the soldiers, before collapsing when they appear to shoot him.

At least 19 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since January 1.

Tensions in the occupied West Bank have been high for months as Israel has ramped up nightly military raids into the Palestinian territory. 

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished the home of Palestinian Uday Tamimi who allegedly killed a female Israeli soldier and fled in an attack last year, sparking a manhunt and clampdown on the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood where he lived.

Israeli security forces choked off the Shuafat refugee camp’s entry and exit points, bringing life to a standstill for its estimated 60,000 residents.

Tamimi was eventually shot and killed after opening fire at Israeli security guards at the entrance of Maale Adumim, a sprawling illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police said some 300 officers and troops entered the Shuafat refugee camp on Wednesday to demolish the home of Uday Tamimi.

The home demolition came in the first weeks of Israel’s new far-right government, which has pushed an even harder line against the Palestinians and vowed to increase illegal Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

READ MORE: Palestine applauds ICJ's reception of request to assess Israeli occupation

'Collective punishment'

Israel has been carrying out demolitions of attackers’ homes well before the entry of this current government and says the tactic deters future attackers.

The Palestinians and rights groups view it as collective punishment, which is illegal under international humanitarian law. 

Israel's new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist who oversees the police, welcomed the demolition.

“This step is very important, but not enough at all. We must destroy all terrorists' homes and deport the terrorists themselves from the country,” he said in a statement.

Ben-Gvir also said on Wednesday that he would continue visits to Islam's third holiest site, the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, just one day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordanian King Abdullah II met in Amman and discussed the political sensitivities at the site.

“I manage my own policy concerning the Temple Mount, not that of the Jordanian government," Ben-Gvir told Israeli public broadcaster Kan. “I went up to the Temple Mount, I will continue to go up to the Temple Mount.”

Muslims call the site the Noble Sanctuary and Jews call the Temple Mount. The Church of Holy Sepulcher, holy to Palestinian Christians, also stands in the compound. 

Earlier this month, Ben-Gvir, made a provocative visit to the site, drawing condemnations from Jordan and across the Arab world.

Under an arrangement that has prevailed for decades under Jordan’s custodianship, Jews and non-Muslims are permitted visits during certain hours but may not pray there. 

But Jewish religious nationalists, including members of Israel’s new governing far-right coalition, have increasingly visited the site and demanded equal prayer rights for Jews there, infuriating the Palestinians and Muslims around the world.

READ MORE: Jordan's King Abdullah hold talks with Netanyahu over status of Al Aqsa