The file photo shows Bakir Hashash, a Palestinian man who was killed during a violent raid on the Balata refugee camp in the east of Nablus City in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on January 6, 2022.

Israeli forces have fatally shot a young Palestinian man during a violent raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

The incident took place at the Balata refugee camp in the east of Nablus City early on Thursday, as the Palestinians clashed with the Israeli soldiers who had stormed the camp to make arrests.

According to Palestinian medical and security sources, Bakir Hashash, 21, was shot in the head.

Hashash’s mother, relatives and friends gathered at Rafidia Hospital after the arrival of his body aboard an ambulance.

The Israeli military frequently carries out wide-ranging arrest campaigns across the West Bank under the pretext of searching for wanted Palestinians.

The Tel Aviv regime has been criticized for its extensive use of lethal force against and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians who do not pose an immediate threat to the occupation forces.

Young Palestinian killed by Israeli settler

Elsewhere, another young Palestinian lost his life after being run over by an Israeli settler in the village of Safa in the western part of the West Bank. The Palestinian, identified as 21-year-old Mustafa Yasin Fathna, was on his way to work when he was hit.

A report by an NGO said that Israeli forces have killed 357 Palestinians in 2021 amid the silence of the international community over the regime’s increasing acts of violence against civilians.

The secretary general of the National Association of the Martyrs’ Families of Palestine, Muhammad Sbeihat, said on January 1 that the body has carried out field research and investigations in various provinces and found out that all these Palestinians were killed at the hands of the Israeli regime last year.

Meanwhile, there has been sharp rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute the Israeli settler assaults on Palestinians and their property. Hence, the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.