Palestinian dies after reportedly being hit by Israeli fire in West Bank
A Palestinian man died at a hospital in the West Bank city of Salfit after being shot in the neck by Israeli forces, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said Thursday.
The official Twitter account of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party identified him as Ibrahim Abu Yaqoub. It said one other person was injured.
The Palestinian news agency Ma’an said Abu Yaqoub was 29.
The announcement by the PA came as the Israel Defense Forces said troops opened fire at two Palestinians who were throwing Molotov cocktails at a military post in the northern West Bank.
An IDF spokesperson said one of the Palestinians was hit by Israeli fire, while the other fled.
Palestinian accounts disputed the IDF statement saying the two men were committing violence.
#صورة: الشهيد إبراهيم مصطفى أبو يعقوب (33 عامًا)، والذي استشهد بعد إصابته برصاص الاحتلال في قرية كفل حارس بسلفيت، الليلة. pic.twitter.com/2iwSht2ydC
— شبكة عين الإعلامية (@aeinnews) July 9, 2020
Salfit’s governor, Abdullah Kmeil, said in a statement that Abu Yaqoub was fired upon “without any kind of justification, as he was walking quite normally with his friends.”
The two were shot “after Israeli forces invaded Kifl Haris,” a village in the northern West Bank, “and shot them in cold blood,” the Salfit governorate said on its Facebook page.
Abu Yaqoub’s funeral will be held tomorrow in Kfil Haris after Friday prayers, the statement said.