Palestinian militant wounded in clash with Israeli army dies: hospital

According to the Israeli hospital treating him, a Palestinian died on Sunday from wounds sustained two days ago in the hotspot Jenin refugee camp following a confrontation with Israeli police.

Daoud al-Zubaidi, 43, was shot in his abdomen during an Israeli raid Friday to arrest what Israel’s army called “terrorist suspects”, at the camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Jenin area has been a flashpoint for weeks during escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

Zubaidi was taken to a hospital in Jenin in critical condition and from there tranferred to Rambam hospital in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

A Rambam spokesman told AFP that Zubaidi had “died of his wounds” on Sunday morning.

Zubaidi was a brother of Zakaria al-Zubaidi, who had headed the armed wing of the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and briefly escaped from Israeli prison last year.

Daoud al-Zubaidi was himself considered to be a prominent militant leader in Jenin.

At least 12 other Palestinians were wounded during Israel’s Friday operations in and around Jenin, which also claimed the life of an Israeli special forces police officer. Noam Raz was shot dead during clashes in Burqin, near Jenin, and was being buried on Sunday.

Israel’s army said it targeted Jenin on Friday because many of the perpetrators in a wave of anti-Israeli attacks over the past few weeks came from the area.

Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist, was shot in the head and died in the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday.