53 Palestinians killed by Israel since Oct 1: Health Ministry

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli security forces on Thursday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, bringing the total Palestinian death toll to 53 since Oct. 1, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that two Palestinians who had attempted to hijack a bus in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh had been shot by Israeli police officers.

One Israeli, he added, had been slightly injured in the attack, while one of the two Palestinians later succumbed to his injuries at Western Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

The latest violence comes amid a three-week-long wave of alleged Palestinian knife and vehicular attacks, which have reportedly left 10 Israelis dead and 120 injured, according to Israel's Magen David Adom paramedic service.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, meanwhile, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of October now stands at 53, including 11 children and one woman.

Over the same period, at least 1,900 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli gunfire, while thousands of others have suffered temporary asphyxia as a result of the excessive use of teargas by the Israeli security forces, the ministry said.

- Mass arrests

On Wednesday night, Israeli forces arrested over 70 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a local Palestinian NGO said Thursday.

“Israeli occupation forces arrested 72 Palestinians in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem,” the Palestinian Prisoners' Society said in a statement.

Since the beginning of October, the NGO added, the Israeli authorities had arrested 959 Palestinians: 615 in the occupied West Bank; 184 in occupied East Jerusalem; and 172 from Arab villages inside Israel.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, more than 6,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in detention facilities throughout the self-proclaimed Jewish state.

- Al-Aqsa restrictions

The Israeli authorities on Thursday imposed fresh restrictions on Palestinians seeking to enter East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while facilitating entry into the site by Jewish settlers.

“As many as 30 Jewish settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa compound under protection of Israeli police,” the Palestinian director of Al-Aqsa affairs, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, told Anadolu Agency.

“They [the settlers] toured the compound, passing by the Al-Qibali and Al-Marwani mosques,” he said.

The settlers eventually left the compound through the Al-Rahmeh Gate with no clashes reported, according to al-Khatib.

Israeli police, he added, had confiscated the identity cards of Palestinian men and women before allowing them to enter the mosque compound.