BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – A young Palestinian man was shot and injured by Israeli forces near a military checkpoint in Qalqiliya on Tuesday morning.
Israeli sources said the young man was from the village of Habla, a Palestinian area inside Israel, while a military spokeswoman told Ma'an that three young men driving a car identified as stolen were driving from Israel into the West Bank.
The spokeswoman said that checkpoint soldiers prevented the car from crossing into the West Bank area, and fired in the air, injuring one man lightly. Reports said one man escaped capture while a third was chased and captured.
A military spokesman later clarified that the car had been involved in a police chase and was fleeing toward the West Bank, adding that soldiers got involved in the incident after the car attempted to break through the checkpoint. He said the man who was injured was treated at the scene and transferred to hospital, and that searchers are ongoing for a third man.
The incident follows two days after a Palestinian worker from Hebron was shot and killed by Israeli border guards when he attempted to enter the Israeli-controlled East Jerusalem village of Al-Isawiya.
The deceased was identified as 38-year-old Izz Ad-Din Al-Kawazba from the town of Sa'ir in Hebron. Al-Kawzaba's cousin Salah told Ma'an at the time that border guards shot the victim at close range, refuting police accounts that the shooting was accidental.
Al-Kawazba said he was 20 meters away from his cousin when he was shot, shortly after two groups of workers climbed over the separation wall in the Zayem At-Tur area and were chased by an Israeli border guard patrol.
He said he urged his cousin, who was with his brother Hassan, to "hurry because the soldiers were behind us."
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