3 Palestinians wounded by Israeli gunfire in West Bank raids

RAMALLAH, Palestine

At least three Palestinians, including two children, were wounded by Israeli gunfire during raids in the southern and northern occupied West Bank late Tuesday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its crews transported two people to the hospital, both with gunshot wounds to their legs.

The victims of an Israeli military raid in the town of ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, were identified as a 22-year-old man and a seven-year-old child.

In a separate incident in the same town, witnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army raided a soccer field and detained trainees of various ages. No further details were provided.

In the northern West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that a child was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the city of Qalqilya.

“Israeli forces fired live bullets at a 13-year-old child near the northern entrance of Qalqilya, resulting in a leg injury. The child was taken to the hospital for treatment, and his condition was described as moderate,” WAFA added.

The Israeli army recently launched its largest military operation in the northern West Bank in two decades, killing at least 33 people and causing massive destruction.

The offensive came amid rising tensions in the occupied territory as Israel pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 685 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio