Palestinians: One Killed, Dozens Wounded in Clashes With Israeli Army in Nablus
Israeli security forces are searching for the assailant who stabbed and killed a man outside a West Bank settlement on Monday
One Palestinian was killed and fifty others were wounded during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The military said clashes broke out while it was searching for an assailant who killed an Israeli man in a stabbing attack. Eye witnesses told Haaretz that soldiers surrounded a house belonging to the father of Abed al-Hakim Asi, who stabbed and killed Itamar Ben Gal, 29, on Monday.
To really understand the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz
According to the Palestinian ministry, dozens of Palestinians were wounded by live rounds, with six of them suffering serious wounds. The military said it was looking into Palestinian reports about casualties.
The military said that clashes broke out between the soldiers and some 500 Palestinians during the raid, adding that rocks, firebombs and explosive devices were hurled at the forces, and that gun fire was also used against the soldiers. According to eye witnesses, the clashes erupted as Israeli forces were pulling out from Nablus.
- Hundreds Attend Funeral for Israeli Slain in Stabbing Attack as Manhunt Widens
- Terrorist Behind Lethal West Bank Stabbing Identified as Israeli Arab
The eye witnesses said that gunfire opened from the Balata Refugee Camp toward the soldiers, and that a shoot-out erupted with the soldiers after a military vehicle broke down.
The military said it has arrested seven suspects but was unable to locate Asi. Asi, an Israeli Arab, is the son of an Israeli mother who lived in Haifa and a Palestinian father from Nablus.
Hundreds of Israelis attended Ben Gal's funeral in the settlement of Har Bracha in the northern West Bank on Tuesday. Ben Gal, a father of four children aged one to seven, was a teacher at a yeshiva high school in Givat Shmuel and the yeshiva in Har Bracha.