Israel:

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.

Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian operative group’s October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, was scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle in 1942, to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace.

Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week.

Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict.

Washington put forward the latest proposal last week after the talks in Doha.

Blinken said Monday he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal”.

Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on the mediators to implement the framework set out by US President Joe Biden in late May, rather than hold more negotiations.

The movement said on Sunday that the current US proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators”.

Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: “This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security”.

Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in reaching an accord that diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“There is, I think, a real sense of urgency here, across the region, on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible,” Blinken said.

The Biden administration is under domestic pressure over Gaza, with pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.

Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention that the protesters “have a point”, adding that “a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides”.

Permanent ceasefire

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for delays in reaching a truce deal.

Hamas insisted on “a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”, saying Netanyahu wanted to keep Israeli forces at several strategic locations within the territory.

Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters who protested in Tel Aviv during Blinken’s visit, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order for an agreement to be reached.

Far-right members crucial to the prime minister’s governing coalition oppose any truce.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and operative deaths.

Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

The Biden framework would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters Gaza.

Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to “release a maximum number of living hostages” in the first phase of any ceasefire.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israel has not launched a ground invasion of Gaza, despite announcing its imminence, a delay media reports and experts attribute to international pressure, political-military divisions and concerns over hostages.

Eighteen days after the deadliest attack ever launched into Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that rules Gaza, the Israeli military is relentlessly pounding the territory.

But apart from some relatively minor incursions, the much-vaunted land offensive has not been unleashed.

“There’s a crisis of confidence between (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF (army),” noted editorial writer Nahum Barnea in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

“The government is having difficulties taking decisions that everyone agrees on about the top issues,” he wrote.

According to government and military sources cited by Barnea, “Netanyahu is angry at the generals and blames them for what happened” during what Israelis are calling “the October 7 fiasco”.

On that day, the country was left stunned after Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border and went on a rampage that Israeli officials say has killed more than 1,400 people.

They also snatched more than 220 hostages in the worst-ever attack in Israel’s history, which has prompted a ferocious Israeli bombardment of Gaza which Hamas officials say has killed 5,791 people.

Unanimity has brought together the left and right wings of mainstream Israeli politics.

“Disputes over these operations are creating tensions, especially between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant,” wrote columnist Amos Harel in Tuesday’s left-leaning Haaretz daily.

State radio noted “dissent between the premier and senior ranks in the military”, with mutual accusations of failing to prevent the bloody attack by Hamas militants.

– ‘Mutual trust’ –

Commentators say the fact that official statements often mention convergence of views at the highest level means the opposite, revealing the artificial nature of a united front.

“The prime minister, the defence minister and the IDF chief of staff are working in close and full cooperation, around the clock, to lead the State of Israel to a decisive victory over Hamas,” said a communique on Tuesday from the Government Press Office.

“There is total and mutual trust between the prime minister, the defence minister and the IDF chief of staff; the unity of the goal is clear.”

Patrick Bettane, an intelligence specialist at Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) think tank, confirmed “disagreement about a ground offensive”.

“But the fact that there are hostages being held in the Gaza Strip complicates everything,” he said.

“Israel is waiting to see how this problem can be resolved before it acts.”

Relatives of those seized and taken to Gaza have staged daily demonstrations outside Gallant’s home in Tel Aviv.

Akiva Eldar, an expert on Israeli politics, asserted that “after the emotions aroused by this terrible massacre, Bibi (Netanyahu) and the generals are starting to think differently”.

He said the presence in Israel of US military personnel was aimed at preventing any move that could mean the death of hostages, including Americans.

This, Eldar said, sheds new light on pledges by both Netanyahu and Gallant that Hamas will have been eradicated when the war is over.

– ‘Nice’ words –

Nevertheless, army chief Herzi Halevi repeated overnight that his aim was the complete removal of Hamas and its leaders.

“We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he told troops according to a statement released by an army spokesperson.

Political analyst Daniel Bensimon said: “Disagreement or not, it’s a fact that Americans and the Europeans are coming to Israel to caress it with honeyed words with the aim of preventing a ground offensive.”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday became the latest foreign leader to visit the region and meet with Israeli premier Netanyahu.

“The international community fears a ground operation would spark a chain reaction that could engulf the whole region, and maybe even further afield,” Bensimon said.

Israelis have been touched by expressions of compassion and solidarity from several leaders to visit the country over the past two weeks, including US President Joe Biden who came on October 18.

Macron told Israelis they were not alone in the “fight against these terrorist groups” but cautioned against “enlarging this conflict”.

For Bensimon, “Biden and Macron say nice things.”

“But in the end they want to stop Israel from going into Gaza and prevent Iran from becoming involved” through the Shiite Hezbollah movement, its proxy in Lebanon, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

At a funeral outside Jerusalem, hundreds of Israelis were listening to a eulogy when air raid sirens began to shrill. Rockets launched from Gaza exploded in the sky as they were intercepted by Israel’s defenses, others crashed into nearby communities. The mourners dropped to the ground and lay in silence, placing their hands over their heads to protect themselves from falling debris.

“It was completely surreal,” said Kelly Meyers, a 54-year-old mother of two mobilized soldiers. “This was just another level of cruelty.”

The 20-year-old soldier being buried in the rural town of Nes Harim, 2nd Lt Yanai Kaminka, was killed on Saturday as he battled Palestinian militants from Gaza who had poured into southern Israel by land, sea and air in a dawn raid after infiltrating a heavily fortified border. Rampaging through communities, military bases and a rave in the desert, the Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. They took dozens of others hostage, and dragged them back to Gaza.

The Nes Harim funeral is a scene being replayed across Israel, a country of close to 10 million people coming to terms with the most lethal attack it has suffered on a single day in its 75-year history. No one has been immune to the horror, shock and grief as more and more stories of families murdered in their beds and gunned down on the streets circulate on social media with graphic photos.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised a crushing campaign against Hamas, which rules Gaza and is committed to Israel’s destruction. Israelis are now preparing for a protracted war that risks a wider conflagration with repercussions beyond the Middle East.  

“We focus on destroying the “ISIS” of Gaza, and defending our citizens,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X. Israel will “exact a price that will be remembered by them (Hamas) and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come,” Netanyahu said. Rhetoric has escalated from Hamas, too. It put out a statement saying it would “win this war or die trying.”

The implications are not lost on the civilians of Gaza, home to about 2 million people crushed into an impoverished narrow seaside strip of 365 square kilometers. With troops massing on the border, 300,000 Israelis called up to fight, and the army building a base near the border, they fear a ground offensive is imminent.

Already, missiles have rained down day and night since Saturday. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed as of Wednesday morning, according to health officials in Gaza, who didn’t say how many of them were civilians. And about 10% of the population is on the move, but with nowhere to go — border crossings are closed.

“You’d hear the sound in the distance, and then you’d feel it shaking the house,” said Aisha Abu Daqqa in the Gaza Strip, of the airstrikes. “For now, all we can do is wait and pray.”

Carrying a few clothes, identification papers and some cash, Abu Daqqa, her parents and six siblings left their home in Abassan, southeastern Gaza on Sunday, some traveling by car, others on foot or motorbike. They hadn’t planned to flee. But after 18 relatives were killed when their apartment building was struck by a missile and Israel warned civilians to evacuate, they traveled to Khan Younis, a city just a few miles west. There they made their way through rubble strewn streets to a friend’s house.

“Nowhere is safe,” Abu Daqqa said Tuesday, after a sleepless night. “The airstrikes and bombardments are horrifying. Is this the safe place Israel advised us to seek shelter in?”

Gazan hospitals are working beyond capacity to care for thousands of wounded people as the sole power plant runs out of diesel, usually supplied by Israel and paid for by Qatar. Medicines and medical supplies are on the verge of running out, according to the ministry of health. Israel cut water, electricity, fuel and supplies to the area with power available only 3-4 hours a day. Canned food quickly disappeared from stores as people rushed to stockpile supplies. The only beef slaughterhouse in the territory is closed. Vegetables, grown near the border, are in short supply.

On the other side of the border, in Israel, civilians are also rushing to gather provisions, and supplies are running low. “We’re running out of everything,” said Roni Maman, 24, who’s been helping her father in his grocery store in Tsur Hadassah, outside Jerusalem. “People are simply grabbing food, especially that which is easy to make like macaroni and cheese. They are buying up insane amounts of water,” she said. “We feel the panic of people who aren’t ready.”

Schools in Israel have been shut since Hamas launched its attack, on the Sabbath and a Jewish holiday. Parents are afraid to report to the office. Gatherings of over 50 people have been banned in southern and central Israel but are not enforced at funerals. Entertainment and cultural venues are largely shut. Cafes are crowded with volunteers packing basic needs for soldiers on the front, and needy citizens.  

The fear in Israel is for the hostages. Parents of young people who are missing after attending the rave are crowding on social media with pleas to get their children back. The family of Noa Argamani has shared footage of her being driven off on the back of a motorcycle, screaming ‘don’t kill me.’ The mother of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli tattoo artist, has begged Germany to help bring her home.

There are also concerns another front will open in the north, with the Iranian-backed and heavily-armed Hezbollah joining the fray. So far, there have only been a few incidents on the northern border, but enough for officials to evacuate some communities amid daily exchanges of fire and to keep national nerves on edge. Lebanese living in south Lebanon, the volatile region bordering Israel, also fled their homes as tensions ran high. Video footage showed hundreds of vehicles in heavy traffic along the narrow roads of border villages.

A day after the solider was buried in Mata, a 21-year-old man who was killed at the rave party was laid to rest in the same cemetery.

Amalia Kav, 15, and her friends have been cleaning out bomb shelters in the area while men who previously served in combat units volunteer to carry arms and patrol the community’s outskirts.

“I feel the pressure growing among the adults,” Kav said, with her mother beside her. ”Most of us have siblings in the army and some of our parents are in the reserves. Some of us are alone at home taking care of younger brothers and sisters. I have never experienced anything like this.”

From the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon to the 2014 war with Hamas that left 2,000 people dead, major conflagrations have been ignited by the killing or capture of small numbers of Israelis. This is the first time, however, that Israel has declared a full-scale war on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas government institutions as well as some military sites are located in populated areas in the densely-packed sliver of land.

More than 260,000 people are displaced across the territory as of Tuesday, and the numbers are increasing as Israeli airstrikes continue. Majda Muhareb, a 37-year-old mother of two in the central Gaza Strip said entire neighborhoods obliterated. Echoing Abu Daqqa, she added, “there is no safe place.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pro-Israel counter-protesters wave signs during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Israeli embassy, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in San Francisco.
| Photo Credit: AP

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on October 9 he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Americans were reported to be among those killed and missing.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.

The large deployment reflects a U.S. desire to deter any regional expansion of the conflict. But the Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.

Preliminary reports indicate that at least four American citizens were killed in the attacks and an additional seven were missing and unaccounted for, according to a U.S. official. The numbers were in flux and could change as a fuller accounting is compiled, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss initial reports received by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Most, if not all, of those reported dead or missing are dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, the official said.

Along with the Ford, the U.S. is sending the cruiser USS Normandy and destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt, and the U.S. is augmenting Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region.

“The U.S. maintains ready forces globally to further reinforce this deterrence posture if required,” Mr. Austin said in a statement.

In addition, the Biden administration “will be rapidly providing the Israel Defense Forces with additional equipment and resources, including munitions. The first security assistance will begin moving today and arriving in the coming days,” Mr. Austin said.

The Norfolk, Virginia-based carrier strike group (was already in the Mediterranean. Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea. The carrier is in its first full deployment.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a telephone call on October 9, discussed “the taking of hostages by Hamas terrorists, including entire families, the elderly, and young children,” according to a White House statement describing their conversation. Mr. Biden stressed that all countries “must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities.”

The President updated Mr. Netanyahu on U.S. diplomatic efforts and said additional assistance for Israeli forces was on the way, with more to come in the days ahead, the White House said.

They also discussed ways “to ensure that no enemies of Israel believe they can or should seek advantage from the current situation.”

As part of the U.S. effort to deter further escalation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday. In each call, he encouraged each country’s “continued engagement” and “highlighted the United States’ unwavering focus on halting the attacks by Hamas and securing the release of all hostages,” department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in separate statements on the three calls.

On Capitol Hill, the House is preparing a bipartisan resolution that says it “stands with Israel” and condemns “Hamas’ brutal war.”

The resolution from the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to be among the first items considered for voting once the House elects a new speaker.

“Now is the time to show the world the United States firmly stands with our friend and ally Israel in our condemnation of this heinous attack by Iran-backed terrorists,” said the committee chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Israeli police on Wednesday shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed a man in a Jerusalem light-rail station, officials said, while Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a convoy of Israeli troops escorting Jewish worshippers to a holy site in the occupied West Bank, wounding four Israeli troops.

The attacks came hours after fighting erupted in a Palestinian refugee camp between local residents and their own security forces, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian man dead.

The bloodshed was the latest in a deadly wave of violence that has gripped the area over the past year and a half and shows no signs of slowing.

The Israeli army said that the late-night explosion in Nablus — a stronghold of Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank — wounded an Israeli military officer and three soldiers.

The soldiers were evacuated to a nearby hospital for treatment. One was moderately wounded and the rest suffered only light wounds. Amateur video on social media showed a large plume of white smoke rising into the air after the blast.

The troops were escorting worshippers to Joseph’s Tomb – a flashpoint shrine where some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried. The Israeli army said the blast struck when its forces were trying to clear the way for worshippers and that no civilians were harmed.

Muslims say a sheikh is buried in the shrine. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year in coordination with Palestinian security forces.

But security coordination has weakened during the wave of fighting, and the unpopular Palestinian security forces have struggled to maintain control in militant strongholds like Nablus.

The explosion came shortly after Wednesday’s stabbing in Jerusalem – in which police said a Palestinian teen attacked a man, moderately wounding him, before he was shot and killed.

The incident occurred along the invisible line straddling east and west Jerusalem.

According to police, the boy stabbed the man on a platform at the station. An off-duty member of the paramilitary border police force in a train noticed the attack, got off the train and shot the attacker. Police later released a photo of what they said was the knife, its tip stained with blood.

However, it was unclear if the boy, identified as a resident of a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem, was still armed when he was killed in what was described as a fast-moving incident.

The police statement said a crowd of people “began to struggle with the terrorist” after the stabbing.

One witness, Eldad Bar-Kochva, told the Ynet news site that he was sitting at the station with his wife when the boy took out the knife.

“We pounced on him, I gave him a strong kick in the face and hand, and the knife fell out of his hand. A border policeman ran over and shot him,” he said, adding that the entire incident unfolded in about 30 seconds. Police praised the “professional and swift response” of the officer and said security camera footage wasn’t immediately available.

Earlier Wednesday, fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank between Palestinians and their own security forces, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead, officials said. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the restive territory.

Palestinian police entered the refugee camp in Tulkarem after residents appealed to the Palestinian Authority to remove metal street barriers set up by local militants that were blocking access to homes and schools, Palestinian security spokesperson Talal Dweikat said.

The angled metal barricades are a staple in the militarized refugee camps of the northern West Bank, meant to deter Israeli military vehicles during frequent army raids.

After police cleared the streets, Dweikat said Palestinian militants opened fire in front of the Tulkarem Muqata, the authority headquarters. Police responded “to control the security situation,” he added.

A Palestinian security officer in Tulkarem, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that an uninvolved Palestinian resident who he identified as the 25-year-old was caught in the crossfire and killed.

He claimed the Palestinian security forces had fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants but not live fire. Palestinians, he said, were seeking to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death but the local militant group refused and was keeping his body.

The Hamas militant group condemned the death.

In flashpoint point cities in the northern West Bank under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, attempts by Palestinian security forces to reassert internal control have stirred anger among defiant militants, who deride the unpopular authority and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, as collaborators with Israel. The PA administers semi-autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Unable to protect Palestinians against surging attacks by Jewish settlers and often deadly Israeli military raids into Palestinian towns and cities, Palestinian security forces have faced deep public criticism over their perceived impotence and reviled security alliance with Israel.

Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the start of this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and those not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Some 30 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.

Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces, inspire more militancy and entrench Israeli control over lands they seek for a hoped-for future state.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli police on Wednesday shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed a man in a Jerusalem light-rail station, officials said, while Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a convoy of Israeli troops escorting Jewish worshippers to a holy site in the occupied West Bank, wounding four Israeli troops.

The attacks came hours after fighting erupted in a Palestinian refugee camp between local residents and their own security forces, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian man dead.

The bloodshed was the latest in a deadly wave of violence that has gripped the area over the past year and a half and shows no signs of slowing.

The Israeli army said that the late-night explosion in Nablus — a stronghold of Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank — wounded an Israeli military officer and three soldiers.

The soldiers were evacuated to a nearby hospital for treatment. One was moderately wounded and the rest suffered only light wounds. Amateur video on social media showed a large plume of white smoke rising into the air after the blast.

The troops were escorting worshippers to Joseph’s Tomb – a flashpoint shrine where some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried. The Israeli army said the blast struck when its forces were trying to clear the way for worshippers and that no civilians were harmed.

Muslims say a sheikh is buried in the shrine. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year in coordination with Palestinian security forces.

But security coordination has weakened during the wave of fighting, and the unpopular Palestinian security forces have struggled to maintain control in militant strongholds like Nablus.

The explosion came shortly after Wednesday’s stabbing in Jerusalem – in which police said a Palestinian teen attacked a man, moderately wounding him, before he was shot and killed.

The incident occurred along the invisible line straddling east and west Jerusalem.

According to police, the boy stabbed the man on a platform at the station. An off-duty member of the paramilitary border police force in a train noticed the attack, got off the train and shot the attacker. Police later released a photo of what they said was the knife, its tip stained with blood.

However, it was unclear if the boy, identified as a resident of a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem, was still armed when he was killed in what was described as a fast-moving incident.

The police statement said a crowd of people “began to struggle with the terrorist” after the stabbing.

One witness, Eldad Bar-Kochva, told the Ynet news site that he was sitting at the station with his wife when the boy took out the knife.

“We pounced on him, I gave him a strong kick in the face and hand, and the knife fell out of his hand. A border policeman ran over and shot him,” he said, adding that the entire incident unfolded in about 30 seconds. Police praised the “professional and swift response” of the officer and said security camera footage wasn’t immediately available.

Earlier Wednesday, fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank between Palestinians and their own security forces, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead, officials said. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the restive territory.

Palestinian police entered the refugee camp in Tulkarem after residents appealed to the Palestinian Authority to remove metal street barriers set up by local militants that were blocking access to homes and schools, Palestinian security spokesperson Talal Dweikat said.

The angled metal barricades are a staple in the militarized refugee camps of the northern West Bank, meant to deter Israeli military vehicles during frequent army raids.

After police cleared the streets, Dweikat said Palestinian militants opened fire in front of the Tulkarem Muqata, the authority headquarters. Police responded “to control the security situation,” he added.

A Palestinian security officer in Tulkarem, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that an uninvolved Palestinian resident who he identified as the 25-year-old was caught in the crossfire and killed.

He claimed the Palestinian security forces had fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants but not live fire. Palestinians, he said, were seeking to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death but the local militant group refused and was keeping his body.

The Hamas militant group condemned the death.

In flashpoint point cities in the northern West Bank under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, attempts by Palestinian security forces to reassert internal control have stirred anger among defiant militants, who deride the unpopular authority and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, as collaborators with Israel. The PA administers semi-autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Unable to protect Palestinians against surging attacks by Jewish settlers and often deadly Israeli military raids into Palestinian towns and cities, Palestinian security forces have faced deep public criticism over their perceived impotence and reviled security alliance with Israel.

Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the start of this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and those not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Some 30 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.

Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces, inspire more militancy and entrench Israeli control over lands they seek for a hoped-for future state.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.