RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – A Jordanian citizen has died after being shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said on Tuesday, with the military accusing the man of aiding a fighter.
Tawfiq Aed Fawaz Hussein, 25, was shot at Zeita junction north of the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday, the Palestinian foreign ministry said.
“He was injured in the leg and the occupation forces left him bleeding inside the ambulance for more than an hour and a half before he died,” the ministry said in a statement.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said Hussein was suspected of being an accomplice of a Palestinian fighter Muhammad Jabar, who was killed by troops on Monday.
Jabar “was armed with a weapon and a ready-to-use explosive device” and was preparing to carry out a suicide attack in Israel, according to the military.
There was no immediate comment from Jordan, which in 1994 became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
A Palestinian security source, requesting anonymity, said Hussein hailed from the Jordanian city of Russeifa and had come to visit relatives in Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm.
Violence has surged in the West Bank — occupied by Israel since 1967 — during the Gaza war that erupted on October 7 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on southern Israel.
At least 427 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army or settlers since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.