Palestinian killed in Israel West Bank raid

BIRZEIT, Palestinian Territories — A Palestinian died during an Israeli army raid on his home in the West Bank town of Birzeit Thursday, the military and a Palestinian security source said.

The death came as Amnesty International criticised Israel’s killing of dozens of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank over the past three years.

“After the army left the house and the town, the body of Motaz Washaha was found,” the Palestinian source said.

The army confirmed the death of a “Palestinian suspected of terror activity.”

“After the suspect was called to turn himself in, he barricaded himself inside his house,” it said.

Soldiers responded with “live fire” and recovered an assault rifle, it added.

Neighbours said the dead man was a member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The army entered Birzeit, north of the West Bank administrative centre of Ramallah, Thursday morning and used “riot dispersal means” to clear stone-throwing Palestinians from their path to the house.

The Palestinian government slammed what it said was a “new escalation” by Israel, adding that the army had “deliberately” killed the man.

“The forces of the occupation surrounded Washaha’s house, evacuated its other inhabitants and then fired several rockets at it, destroying parts of it whilst firing [with guns],” a statement said.