Israeli troops kill three Palestinians in new violence

In a separate incident, car runs down group of Israeli soldiers in occupied Jerusalem in a suspected Palestinian attack, officials say.

Mourners carry the body of Yazan Abu Tabikh, who was killed in an Israeli raid, during his funeral in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 6, 2020.
Reuters

Mourners carry the body of Yazan Abu Tabikh, who was killed in an Israeli raid, during his funeral in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 6, 2020.

A spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence on Thursday left three Palestinians dead and a dozen Israeli troops injured in a rash of attacks and clashes a week after the US administration released its long-anticipated Mideast plan, immediately trashed by Palestinians. 

The new spate of attacks places the plan – which was already considered a long-shot because it greatly favours Israel and was rejected outright by the Palestinians – on even shakier ground, and sparked fears of a return to deadly rounds of violence of the past. 

The plan, touted by the US as "deal of the century", has sparked calls by Israeli nationalists for Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank – land Palestinians want for their hoped-for state – and has set off tensions in the region.

But they erupted more fiercely on Thursday in the deadliest day of violence in months.

Reuters

A man looks at the house of Palestinian assailant Ahmed al Qanbaa after it was demolished by Israeli forces in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 6, 2020.

Palestinian casualties 

Early in the day, a Palestinian motorist slammed his car into a group of Israeli soldiers, wounding 12 before fleeing the scene, the Israeli military said. 

The assailant was arrested later in the day, the Israeli military said, without immediately identifying the driver. Israel's YNet news website identified him as a 25-year-old Palestinian.

In the occupied West Bank, two Palestinians died after clashes broke out with Israeli troops, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

And later, Israeli police said they shot and killed a Palestinian who opened fire at forces in occupied Jerusalem's Old City, lightly wounding an officer.

Palestinian hospital officials said a 19-year-old was killed in clashes in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. 

Six others were wounded in the confrontation. 

In a separate incident also in Jenin, a member of the Palestinian security forces who was shot by Israeli troops later died. 

That violence came just hours after Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during clashes with demonstrators elsewhere in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Israel strikes Gaza

"The spreading resistance and clashes by our people in the West Bank and their resistance in the heart of occupied Jerusalem is an active response against the destructive Trump deal," said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem.

Also on Thursday, Israel struck Hamas positions in besieged Gaza after three mortar shells were fired at Israel. There was no immediate report of injuries on either side.

Unveiled last week at the White House with much fanfare, US President Trump's plan envisions a disjointed Palestinian state that turns over key parts of the West Bank to Israel. 

It sides with Israel on key contentious issues that have bedeviled past peace efforts, including borders and the status of Jerusalem and illegal Jewish West Bank settlements, and attaches nearly impossible conditions for granting the Palestinians their hoped-for state.

The plan was greeted ecstatically in Israel, with PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to speed ahead with annexing parts of the occupied West Bank. But under pressure from the US administration, he appears to be scaling back on that promise.

The Palestinians dismissed the plan as "nonsense" and have promised to resist it.

The Palestinians, as well as much of the international community, view the settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem – territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war – as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.

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