NABLUS: The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Monday, while the Israeli military reported it had “neutralised” an attacker who fired at an Israeli civilian.

The ministry based in Ramallah said in a statement that 18-year-old Tariq Ziad Abdul Rahim Daoud was killed “by the occupation forces’ bullets near the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya” in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the alleged attacker had “fired at an Israeli civilian who was in the city” of Qalqilya, despite Israel forbidding Israelis from visiting built-up Palestinian areas.

The Israeli civilian was wounded along with two other Palestinians, the military said.

“IDF (the Israeli military) conducted a pursuit after the terrorist and neutralised him adjacent to Qalqilya”, it added.

Hamas’s political wing later issued a statement mourning the death of “Tariq Daoud, commander of Al-Qassam Brigades in Qalqilya Governorate, who was killed in a cowardly assassination” by Israeli forces in Azzun.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, violence has flared in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

Palestinian officials say Israel troops kill 5 in West Bank raid

At least 618 Palestinians have been killed there by the Israeli army or settlers, according to an AFP count based on official Palestinian data.

During the same period, at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the occupied West Bank, according to official Israeli data.