Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian at West Bank Checkpoint
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK —
Israeli troops on Tuesday shot dead a Palestinian who the military said had opened fire and wounded a soldier at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
An Israeli soldier stands guard at the Zatra checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, June 3, 2014.
The Palestinian mainstream Fatah group identified the man as Alaa Odeh, a 30-year-old mobile phone shop owner, and along with relatives accused soldiers of killing him in cold blood.
In a statement, the military said “a Palestinian gunman opened fire and wounded a border policemen, and the force returned fire, killing the perpetrator”.
It posted on Twitter a photograph of a pistol on the ground and said the attacker had fired six shots. Odeh's family was quoted as saying in media reports that he was at the checkpoint awaiting a delivery of phones.
The night-time incident came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new unity government, healing a rift with Hamas Islamists in Gaza, and raising tensions with Israel.
The shooting occurred at the same checkpoint where troops, four days ago, arrested a Palestinian who the military said was wearing an explosives belt.
U.S.-led peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in April and some analysts have warned of a possible spike in violence given the lack of any clear way forward to resolve the generations-old conflict.
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