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Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian inside Settlement | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Israeli soldiers on Thursday shot dead a Palestinian man who infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an army spokeswoman said.

Two Palestinians, one of them “suspected of being armed,” penetrated into the Barkan settlement close to the West Bank city of Nablus, the spokeswoman said.

It was earlier reported that one of the Palestinians was armed.

She added that soldiers stationed at the settlement shot at the infiltrators after the customary warnings, killing one, while the other fled during the dawn incident.

Soldiers were stationed at the settlement after a string of burglaries in the past few months, the spokeswoman said, while a police source said the suspect was believed to be a thief.

A joint investigation was opened with the Palestinians, the army said.

Palestinian police identified the victim as Bilal Abou Libneh, 25, from the town of Qalqilya, and said he was not a member of any armed group.

In an official statement, Ghassan Khatib, spokesman of the Palestinian government, said that the victim “was only suspected” of having a weapon on him.

He denounced what he said was the Israeli army’s “current practice of shoot now and ask questions later.”