Unarmed Palestinian who allegedly lunged at troops shot dead in West Bank
IDF says soldiers fired into air first, used deadly force after suspect refused to halt; suicide note found on his body; separately, Israeli driver comes under fire
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A Palestinian man was shot dead after allegedly lunging at Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Friday afternoon, the military said.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the Palestinian suspect exited a vehicle that had arrived from Nablus, walked toward soldiers stationed at a post near the Samaria Territorial Brigade base, and allegedly lunged at them.
The troops first shot into the air, and after the suspect continued to refuse calls to halt, they fired directly at him, killing him, the IDF said. A military source said a suicide note was found on his body. The man was not armed.
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry named him as 26-year-old Abdullah Samih Ahmed Qalalwa.
No Israeli soldiers were hurt in the incident, the IDF said.
Separately on Friday, an Israeli driver came under fire near the West Bank city of Rawabi. The IDF said several bullet holes were identified on the car, and shell casings were found nearby.
#صورة الشهيد عبد الله سميح قلالوة، والذي أستشهد برصاص جيش الاحتلال قرب بلدة حوارة مساء اليوم . pic.twitter.com/P6RbpkD7wp
— Newpress | نيو برس (@NewpressPs) February 3, 2023
The incidents came as tensions remain high in the West Bank, with the IDF pressing on with an anti-terror offensive to deal with a series of attacks that left 31 people in Israel dead in 2022, and seven more in an attack last weekend.
The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left 171 Palestinians dead in 2022, and another 36 since the beginning of the year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.
