At least seven Palestinians were killed in attacks by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on different parts of the besieged Gaza Strip, and the occupied West Bank during the last 48 hours.

On Tuesday, April 28, Israeli warplanes launched two airstrikes on Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis, killing five people, including a nine-year-old child. Several other people were also reported injured in the onslaughts.

Tuesday’s assaults have taken the official death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to 72,599 people.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of Wednesday, April 29, Abdul Halim Rouhi Hamad (37) was killed by the IOF during a raid on the town of Silwad, in the central West Bank governorate of Ramallah and al-Bireh.

Local media outlets reported that Israeli soldiers shot Hamad at his home in Silwad, after he had allegedly stabbed two Israeli soldiers in clashes that erupted during the IOF raid on the town earlier that day.

While the injured soldiers were evacuated for treatment, Hamad’s body was confiscated by the IOF, and members of his family were arrested.

The restriction of movement for people entering and leaving Ramallah was tightened further following the incident.

On Wednesday evening, Ibrahim Abdul-Khayyat (15) succumbed to his injury, after being shot by the IOF during a raid on the al-Hawooz area in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli escalation across West Asia serves Netanyahu’s personal goals

The surge in IOF violence in the occupied Palestinian territories is viewed as part of Israel’s escalation of its multi-front war across the West Asia region, where Lebanon has also been targeted with deadly airstrikes on an almost daily basis.

Read more: Israel escalates its aggression on Lebanon after ceasefire extension

Analysts suggest that this escalation serves the political goals of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who seeks to perpetuate the regional war to stay in power and further postpone his corruption trial.

On Monday, April 27, Netanyahu once again managed to cancel his testimony in the trial an hour before it was scheduled upon the request of his attorney, based on unspecified “security reasons”.

It is worth noting that the Israeli premiere’s long-running corruption trial began in 2020, but it was interrupted numerous times mainly on the pretext of Israel’s engagement in regional conflicts.

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