Palestinian killed in clash with IDF during search for rabbi’s killer

Four others were injured during Saturday’s raid on the West Bank village of Burqin.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Updated: FEBRUARY 5, 2018 00:41
IDF soldier near Jenin (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
IDF soldier near Jenin
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
Three weeks after an Israeli was murdered in a drive-by shooting near the Havat Gilad outpost in the West Bank, security forces are still searching for the killer.
Over the weekend, Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinians in the West Bank as forces continued to hunt for the killer of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, 32, a resident of the outpost near Nablus. Shevach, who was married with six children, was shot 22 times as he was returning home, in a drive-by attack on Route 60 in January.
On Saturday night, IDF soldiers detained a Palestinian who is suspected of collaborating with the attacker. During the raid, soldiers searching for Ahmad Nassr Jarrar, clashed with Palestinian youths as the IDF surrounded the village of Burqin west of Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Four Palestinians were reported injured by rubber-coated steel bullets.
Palestinian health officials identified one youth, 19-year-old Ahmad Abu Obeid, as having died from his wounds after being shot by troops with live fire.
According to the Ma’an News Agency, Obeid was shot in the head during the raid in the Wadi Burqin neighborhood. He was taken in critical condition to Jenin Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
“At the end of last week and in recent hours, IDF troops from the Menashe Regional Division, along with Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] and Border Police arrested a number of suspects,” read a statement by the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit. “In the last hours of the operation, some disturbances occurred and security forces responded with riot control measures.”
The IDF, together with other security forces, said they would continue to take action against anyone who assisted Shevach’s killer in any way and would continue to protect the security of the residents of Israel.
Israel has been searching for Ahmad Nasser Jarrar, believed to be the cell leader responsible for the killing, and who has been able to evade capture while carrying out both covert and overt operations in the West Bank.
Two weeks after the murder, Israel Police’s YAMAM counterterrorism unit led a 12-hour operation, during which one Palestinian was killed and two others arrested.
Two YAMAM officers were also wounded during an exchange of gunfire with the suspects.
Following the raid in Jenin, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel’s security establishment knows everything about the terrorist cell that carried out the attack and those who aided them.
“We will get him soon and settle our accounts with him. He should know that he is currently living the life of a fleeing dog. He is living on borrowed time. We will catch him.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs said on Sunday that the ongoing search for the cell leader “unveils the racism, extremism and hatred prevailing within Israel’s political and military institutions,” the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa reported.


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