At least four Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military forces on Thursday, making it the deadliest day of violence in the West Bank and the Old City of al-Quds this week, as 2022 is on course to become the bloodiest year of aggression in the occupied territories in nearly two decades.

Two were killed and four others wounded during an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

The ministry identified one of the victims as 28-year-old Farouq Jamil Salameh, who was shot in the abdomen, chest and head. He was officially pronounced dead shortly after he was transported to a hospital in Jenin in critical condition.

The second one was named as Mohammad Samer Khlouf, 14, from the town of Burqin, who died of wounds sustained during the assault.

Witnesses said a large number of Israeli military vehicles raided the camp in the afternoon, and surrounded a house where Salameh was.

An exchange of gunfire took place during which Salameh was fatally shot and four others, including an 8-year-old child, were slightly wounded.

Earlier in the day, Israeli military forces shot and killed a young Palestinian man in the occupied Old City of al-Quds over an alleged stabbing attack against the regime’s soldiers.

The Israeli police alleged in a statement that officers spotted the man, identified as 20-year-old Bader Amer from the East al-Quds neighborhood of Beit Hanina, near the Iron Gate entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and began to question him. 

The statement further claimed that the Palestinian man pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers in his upper body during the examination.

Another two Israeli officers opened fire at the man, and he was declared dead at the scene shortly thereafter.

In addition to the stabbed policeman, one officer was hurt when he was shot by so-called friendly fire as his colleagues opened fire toward the Palestinian youth.

A third officer was slightly hurt in the incident, even though it was not immediately how s/he had sustained injuries.

The development came a few hours after Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man during a military raid in the central part of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim as 42-year- old Daoud Mahmoud Khalil Rayan, according to the official Wafa news agency.

Palestinian officials said the raid began with Israeli military vehicles entering the village of Beit Duqqu northwest of al-Quds in the early hours of Thursday. In videos circulated on social media, exchanges of fire could be heard.

Wafa reported that Rayan was struck with a bullet in the heart.

Israeli forces have recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.

Israel has killed more than 150 Palestinians since the start of 2022 in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 26 since the start of October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a new report yesterday.

Local and international rights groups have condemned Israel’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against Palestinians.