• Israeli-Palestinian violence has escalated.
• A militant and a Palestinian school teacher were killed during a military raid.
• The Israeli military declined to comment immediately.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israeli troops killed a Palestinian schoolteacher and a militant during a military raid in the West Bank early Thursday, according to Palestinian officials and media, as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated.

Jawad Bawaqna, 57, and Adham Jabarin, 28, were killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. They were killed in Jenin, a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

According to the Palestinian news agency, Bawaqna was a secondary school teacher and father of six children. Jabarin was claimed as a fighter by the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority. According to the agency, Bawaqna was shot and killed while attempting to provide medical assistance to Jabarin after being shot outside his home.

The Israeli military declined to comment immediately.

Israeli forces also detained a local official of the militant group Islamic Jihad in Jenin, according to Palestinian media.

Tensions have risen in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out near-nightly arrest raids since last spring, following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 19. A further ten Israelis were killed in a second wave of attacks later that year.

According to Israel, the raids are intended to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. The Palestinians see them as a further entrenchment of Israel’s ongoing, 55-year occupation of lands sought for a future Palestinian state.

Total death of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces

The deaths on Thursday bring the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank to 17 since the beginning of 2023.

According to figures from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year since 2004.

According to Israel, the majority of those killed were militants. However, Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions, and others who were not involved in the clashes have also been killed.

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