HEBRON, May 7, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli forces on Wednesday evening killed a Palestinian at the southern entrance of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to security sources.
They said that the occupation forces manning a checkpoint at al-Fahs Junction opened fire at Abdul-Fattah Ahed Ahmad al-Hreibat, 20, killing him.
They added that the occupation forces were still withholding al-Hreibat’s body.
The occupying forces said that al-Hreibat was “neutralized,” purportedly after ramming his vehicle into the soldiers at the checkpoint and attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.
Israeli media often uses the term "neutralized" in initial reports to indicate that a suspected attacker has been subdued, when it is later revealed they had been injured or killed on the scene.
The circumstances of the incident are still unknown. Similar previous incidents appeared to be car accidents, not premeditated attacks.
Following al-Hreibat’s killing, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Dura city, where the soldiers broke into his family house, held dozens of his family members, subjected them to interrogation, kicked and assaulted them by rifle butts.
There has been an upsurge in attacks by Israeli forces and colonists in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 960 Palestinians, injuring approximately 7,000 others and detaining 16,400 others.
The occupation forces have been tightening military measures across the occupied West Bank since hours after the release of the first batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire went into effect in January, dismembering and isolating cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.
They have severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including 18 gates that have been installed since the start of 2025 and 146 others installed in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.
The Israeli military measures are in parallel with ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities.
Closures besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 58-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
K.F.
