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Israeli Troops Kill Young Palestinian Officer in West Bank
Israeli troops on Wednesday shot and killed a young Palestinian police officer while he was driving on a road in the northern West Bank.
Israeli army has confirmed shooting of a Palestinian vehicle and killing of the Palestinian officer, identified as Ayed Abu Harb.
A statement issued by the Israeli army said that Israeli troops spotted the car with five armed Palestinians traveling on a road between the communities of Shavei Shomron and Homesh in the northern West Bank.
The troops opened fire at the vehicle and killed the officer, the statement said, adding that the other occupants of the car escaped.
But Izz al-Deen al-Sharif, mayor of the West Bank Palestinian town of Tulkarm, gave a different version, saying that Abu Harb, 24, was killed as he and other Palestinian police came under heavy fire from Israeli troops at the eastern entrance to the town as they were trying to remove blocks and debris placed there in the past five months.
"We cannot wait until people here die out of hunger because of the Israeli closure," said the governor. "We will keep trying until we remove the checkpoints that strangle us."
Israel imposed a closure on the Palestinian areas and cut off links between Palestinian towns in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the more than four months of clashes between Israeli troops and the Palestinians, which have left about 400 people dead, most them Palestinians.
Israel Radio quoted unnamed Palestinian sources as saying that the killing was an assassination carried out by Israeli forces.
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