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Palestinian football player killed by Israeli army in West Bank

23-year-old Ahmad Atef Daraghmeh was killed, and five other Palestinians injured during an Israeli army raid in Nablus.

AFP

Near-daily Israeli military raids into the occupied West Bank have resulted in the deaths of more than 150 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.

Israeli troops have shot dead a Palestinian and injured five others in the northern West Bank.

“The young man, Ahmad Atef Daraghmeh, 23, was shot dead by the Israeli army during a raid on the city of Nablus,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday.

The Palestinian health ministry said Daraghmeh, a footballer on the Thaqafi Tulkarm team, sustained bullet wounds to the back and foot. He was originally from the city of Tubas.

Palestinian officials say Israeli security forces have killed 23-year-old man, as violent confrontations erupted in Nablus in occupied West Bank pic.twitter.com/aIgRnjRIMO
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Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that a large group of Israeli military forces stormed the site known as Joseph's Tomb, east of Nablus, to secure settlers' access to perform Talmudic prayers.

Clashes broke out between dozens of Palestinians and the Israeli army, eyewitnesses added.

The religious site, which Jews call Joseph's Tomb, has long been a flashpoint for violence.

Jews say the site is the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Muslims, however, challenge this assertion, saying an Islamic cleric – Sheikh Yussef Dawiqat – was buried at the site two centuries ago.

Deadliest year since 2006

More than 150 Palestinians and over 20 Israelis have been killed so far this year in West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to official figures, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.

''I am gravely concerned by the sharp increase in violence against civilians on both sides, which exacerbates mistrust and undermines a peaceful resolution to the conflict,'' Tor Wennesland, the UN's Middle East envoy told the Security Council on Monday.

Wennesland also expressed concern over the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the world body says constitutes a flagrant violation of UN resolutions and international law.

Some 4,800 housing units were advanced this year in Area C of the West Bank, and the number of housing units advanced more than tripled from the previous year – from 900 units in 2021 to 3,100 units in 2022, he said.

He urged Israel to cease advancement of all settlement activities as well as the demolition of Palestinian-owned properties.