RAMALLAH: Israeli troops killed a Palestinian during a raid in the illegally occupied West Bank that touched off clashes with gunmen on Monday, medical officials said, while air strikes hit a Gaza Strip banquet hall following a weekend rocket launch from the enclave.

The West Bank has seen violence simmer for months amid deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, stirring concern among foreign mediators over a possible spread to Gaza, whose Hamas rulers have mostly held their fire since a May 2021 war.

The Israeli army said troops entered Nablus, among flashpoint northern West Bank areas that have been a focus of its recent raids, to detain militants. The soldiers exchanged fire with gunmen during the raid, it said.

The Palestinian health ministry said Amir Ihab Bustami, 21, was killed in a pre-dawn Israeli army raid in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

21-year-old killed in Israeli raid, says Palestinian health ministry

The Israeli army said it had apprehended two men, Abdul Kamel Jouri and Osama Taweel, who had allegedly shot dead the Israeli soldier Ido Baruch in October. Three others were also arrested, the army said.

The Israeli army said it had collected intelligence for months trying to “locate a hideout apartment where the assailants were hiding”.

The Den of Lions militant group said it had ambushed the troops.

Rocket factory or banquet hall?

In Gaza, Israeli air strikes hit what the Israeli military claimed an underground Hamas rocket foundry, asserting this a response to a cross-border rocket launch on Saturday. Palestinians rejected Israel’s account of the site struck overnight in Gaza City, saying it was a beachfront banquet hall.

Ayman Shamalakh, a gas station owner in the coastal territory, said the Israeli strikes hit a nearby events hall, causing glass to shatter in the area, and added that as for the hall, it was completely destroyed.

Hamas cadres seized control of Gaza in 2007 and since then they have fought several wars with Israel. When smaller Gazan factions attack Israel, it generally retaliates against Hamas.

Saturday’s rocket launch was claimed by the Den of Lions, which has not previously been known to have a presence in Gaza.

Following Monday’s air strikes, there were several new rocket launches against Israel, setting off sirens in its border towns. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine group said it fired those rockets, which caused no damage.

Israel’s controversial move

In a move likely to further inflame tensions, Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday announced it would legalise nine West Bank Jewish settlements in response to fatal Palestinian attacks in annexed east Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government also announced a beefed-up security presence in east Jerusalem, the scene of two recent deadly attacks targeting Israelis.

A security cabinet statement said many of the newly authorised West Bank settler communities had existed for years, and others for decades, but had not previously been recognised as legitimate by Israel’s government.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called for the international community to “punish” Israel over the highly controversial move.

Jordan’s foreign ministry spokesman Sinan Majali said “such measures will push towards more violence” meaning that “everyone will pay the price”.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2023