Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in raid on occupied West Bank town 

Israeli soldiers have killed at least one person during a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Aqqaba, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The body of the Palestinian man, identified as 25-year-old Adham Zayed Ezzat Masri, was still being held by Israeli forces, the ministry said on Saturday after the dawn assault.

Aqqaba is located in the north of the governorate of Tubas, which lies in the northwest Palestinian territory.

The man was killed after his family home in Aqqaba was surrounded by soldiers, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which also reported that a 50-year-old Palestinian was injured in the chest after being hit by live bullets and was transferred to hospital in critical condition.

Another 49-year-old person suffered bruises, the agency said.

The director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in Tubas, Kamal Bani Odeh, said Israeli forces arrested two other men during the raid, according to Wafa.

The Israeli military sent a number of vehicles, accompanied by a bulldozer, from checkpoints located in the east of Aqqaba, to surround several homes and carry out arrests, sources told Al Jazeera.

They said armed confrontations broke out inside the town.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

Israeli forces arrested at least 18 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank from Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Violence has surged in the area since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests.

There have also been regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters during the Israeli army raids.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed more than 760 Palestinians in the West Bank over that period, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry.

In August, the Israeli military launched a major offensive in northern areas of the West Bank – the largest in two decades – sealing off areas such as Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.