Israeli forces kill Palestinian, thousands protest violent raids

Israeli forces have shot and killed a young Palestinian man in the southern occupied West Bank on Friday early morning. 

Mohammad Jawabreh, 22, was shot in the head during confrontations at the Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron and succumbed to his wounds on Friday before dawn, local medics said, reports Al Jazeera. 

He was admitted to the intensive care unit upon arriving at al-Ahli hospital in the city and remained there until his death.

Jawabreh was a police officer with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and worked in Bethlehem city. He was also an undergraduate student in media technology at the Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie, the school said in a statement mourning him.

Israeli forces have killed 65 Palestinians, including 13 children, this year so far, and injured hundreds of others, making the first two months of 2023 the deadliest for Palestinians compared with the same period since 2000.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the "start of this year is the bloodiest in the occupied West Bank since the year 2000, at least. In the past 22 years, we have not recorded this number of martyrs, in the first two months of a year."

Confrontations with Israeli forces had broken out on Thursday across the occupied West Bank in response to Israel's killing of 11 Palestinians and wounding more than 100 others in the city of Nablus a day prior, in what was described as a "massacre".

Among the victims were three elderly men – aged 72, 66 and 61 – and a 16-year-old boy. More than 80 other Palestinians were shot with live ammunition, and hundreds suffered from tear gas inhalation.