Anger has swept across the middle east after Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants in a firefight in the occupied West Bank on the first day of Ramadan.
Arab News reported that the toll of Palestinians killed over three days has climbed to seven.
Tensions have soared in recent days after Palestinian assailants killed 11 Israelis in separate attacks across the country. Saturday marks the start of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayer, and religious devotion for hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.
Live videos by witnesses on social media showed a crowd of Palestinians inspecting the scene of the clashes near the city of Jenin after the Israeli troops withdrew. The street was covered with bloodstains and the men chanted slogans calling for revenge.
Palestine TV reported that Israeli forces seized the bodies of the militants.
On Friday, a Palestinian man was killed by troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, during clashes that erupted after mosque prayers. The Israeli military said its forces shot a Palestinian who threw a firebomb at them.
Several hundred Jewish settlers live under heavy military protection in the heart of Hebron, a city of more than 200,000 Palestinians and home to a major holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims.
Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said 36 Palestinians were hurt in weekly confrontations with Israeli forces elsewhere in the West Bank. Thirty-three of the injured were struck by rubber bullets and three by live rounds Friday, the Red Crescent said.
At the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, authorities said more than 30,000 people attended Friday prayers on the eve of Ramadan. There were no reports of protests or violence.
The hilltop on which the mosque is located is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and it has been a frequent flashpoint in the century-old conflict.
Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian leaders have held a flurry of talks in recent weeks, and Israel has made a series of goodwill gestures, all aimed at calming tensions ahead of Ramadan. They hope to avoid a repeat of last year when protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war and Jewish-Arab violence in Israel’s mixed cities.
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