Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 72 Palestinians, including protesters and bystanders.

Israeli soldiers has shot dead a Palestinian who they alleged had earlier attempted to attack them in the occupied West Bank.

Sunday’s incident in the Beit Einun village near Hebron marks the latest killing in several weeks of violence, as tensions between Israel and Palestine surge.

A paramedic from the Red Crescent told Ma’an that Israeli forces would not allow their medics to examine the young man.

“Israeli soldiers forced us at gunpoint to leave the area,” the paramedic said. “From the amount of bleeding, the young man must have been shot several times.”

An army spokesperson told the Ma’an News Agency that no one was injured in the alleged stabbing attack, adding that there had been a “violent riot” in the village.

Death toll rises

Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 72 Palestinians – including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers – across Israel, the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Nine Israelis have died in stabbing or shooting incidents in the same period.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in one day, including an eight-month-old baby who suffocated from tear gas inhlation.

While the attacks were initially focused in Jerusalem, the epicentre has recently shifted to Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, where there have been daily protests decrying the increasingly forceful occupation.

Hebron is home to a shrine known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, has 200,000 Palestinian residents.

Around 500 Israeli settlers live in the centre, protected by an army-patrolled buffer zone.