Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel Kills Palestinian in West Bank Checkpoint Shooting

Israeli troops on Tuesday shot dead a Palestinian who the military said had opened fire and wounded a soldier at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian mainstream Fatah group identified the man as Alaa Odeh, a 30-year-old mobile phone shop owner, and along with relatives accused soldiers of killing him in cold blood.

In a statement, the military said “a Palestinian gunman opened fire and wounded a border policemen, and the force returned fire, killing the perpetrator”.

It posted on Twitter a photograph of a pistol on the ground and said the attacker had fired six shots. Odeh’s family was quoted as saying in media reports that he was at the checkpoint awaiting a delivery of phones.

The night-time incident came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new unity government, healing a rift with Hamas Islamists in Gaza, and raising tensions with Israel.

The shooting occurred at the same checkpoint where troops, four days ago, arrested a Palestinian who the military said was wearing an explosives belt.

U.S.-led peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in April and some analysts have warned of a possible spike in violence given the lack of any clear way forward to resolve the generations-old conflict.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.