RAMALLAH: With scores of Palestinians killed across the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, rights groups have accused the Zionist entity of giving soldiers free rein to shoot on site while war rages in Gaza. In just over five weeks since the war between the Zionist entity and Hamas erupted on Oct 7, at least 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry. The figure is almost as high as the ministry’s toll of 208 dead for the first nine months of the year up to the start of the war.

The surge in violence comes as raids by Zionist forces on Palestinian communities have multiplied in the West Bank, which has been occupied by the Zionist entity since the 1967 Arab-Zionist war. Iyad Haddad, from the anti-occupation Zionist organization B’Tselem, said “the (Zionist) army and settlers now have a free hand to fire on Palestinians in the West Bank” in an unprecedented way.

Since Monday alone, the health ministry said nine Palestinians have been killed by Zionist forces. The first was a 66-year-old taxi driver shot dead in Hebron, in the southern West Bank. “A soldier heard shots and responded” the Zionist army said, while witnesses said the man killed was not involved in any violence. Seven Palestinians were subsequently killed during a Zionist raid in Tulkarem, in the north, while a ninth was shot dead near Hebron on Tuesday morning.

Last week, the Zionist entity’s extreme-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who lives in a settlement himself, gave stark instructions to law enforcement. “Zero tolerance. In case of doubt, there is no doubt,” he said in annexed east Jerusalem, where a Palestinian was shot after allegedly attacking Zionist police. At least three Zionists have been killed in the West Bank since Oct 7, including one who was shot dead by a fellow soldier.

In the northern city of Jenin, physician Pedro Serrano recalled treating multiple gunshot wounds during a raid on Thursday. Most “had been shot in the abdomen and the legs”, said Serrano, from Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “Some had an exploded liver or spleen, the others had serious vascular wounds,” he added. “There was also a really sad case, of a man who walked just in front of the hospital and was hit in the head by a sniper,” said Serrano.

The Zionist incursion into Jenin was the deadliest Zionist raid in the West Bank since at least 2005, according to United Nations data, with the Palestinian health ministry announcing 14 people were killed. While Zionist raids in the West Bank have frequently been fatal, other Palestinians have been killed in clashes. Sayed Homeidat, a 17-year-old from Jalazone refugee camp, was one of the dozens of minors killed in recent weeks.

According to eyewitnesses, B’Tselem and Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, he was shot dead by a Zionist soldier standing more than a 100 meters away. Zionist forces had blocked a road to repair a wall, which separates the camp from the Zionist settlement of Beit El on Oct 26. Young Palestinians threw stones at soldiers but Homeidat was not involved, witnesses told AFP.

For Omran Al-Risheq, from Al-Haq, “it’s very clear that the soldiers shoot to kill even if they are not in danger”. The two rights organizations accuse the military of using live bullets, rather than other means, to disperse protesters. Journalists working in the West Bank have confirmed that Zionist troops are not using tear gas as much as they used to before the war, while killings have surged. – AFP