RAMALLAH: Zionist troops shot dead a teen in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the fourth Palestinian killed in the occupied territory in two days. The ministry identified the slain Palestinian as 17-year-old Odeh Odeh, who was hit in the chest by what it said was a Zionist bullet near the village of Al-Madiya, west of Ramallah.

It came hours after a Palestinian man was killed during a clash with Zionist forces conducting an arrest operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. On Wednesday, a woman allegedly approaching soldiers with a knife was shot, and later that day a man was killed in a Zionist raid in the northern West Bank.

Zionist security forces have stepped up their operations in the West Bank in recent months, carrying out almost daily raids. The army said troops had entered Dheisheh to arrest a Palestinian "suspected of terrorist activities" and were met with volleys of petrol bombs and cement blocks. They responded with live rounds.

Late Wednesday, Zionist troops mounted an incursion into the village of Yabad outside Jenin to demolish the home of the assailant in a March attack that killed five people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak. The health ministry said that after that raid a Palestinian man died in hospital in Jenin. He had been admitted in critical condition, having been "shot by live bullets in the chest and thigh".

Palestinian news agency Wafa said that six Palestinians were wounded in the Zionist raid. The army said it had also arrested the "terrorist's father". It said it had informed the family of the shooter, Diaa Hamarsha, on April 17 of the demolition order against the family home. The Zionist entity regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Zionists. The practice, which often fuels tensions, has been condemned by critics as a form of collective punishment. On Wednesday morning, Zionist soldiers in the southern West Bank shot dead Ghofran Warasnah, 31, near Hebron after she "advanced" towards soldiers with a knife, the army said. - AFP