The Israeli army has lifted a three-day blockade on the Palestinian city of Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank after a man it claimed killed an American-Israeli earlier this week. Israeli forces shot Mahmoud Jamal Hassan Hamdan, a 22-year-old Palestinian man, during a raid on the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho on Wednesday afternoon.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that he succumbed to his wounds later in the day. A general strike took place in Jericho on Thursday to protest against Hamdan’s killing, while the Israeli army removed checkpoints and roadblocks placed at the entrances to the city, which heavily restricted the movement of thousands of Palestinians as they searched for the perpetrator of the shooting.
The Palestinian shooting attack took place on Monday, killing 26-year-old American-Israeli and former Israeli army soldier Ellen Ganales on a highway near Jericho.
The incident occurred after hundreds of Jewish settlers settled in Huwara and other Palestinian villages south of Nablus in the West Bank, killing one Palestinian civilian, injuring hundreds, and burning dozens of cars and houses, in what has been described as a “pogrom”.
Israel reinforced its troops at its West Bank bases on Sunday after two brothers from an illegal Jewish settlement were shot dead. The attack followed a large-scale Israeli offensive on the occupied city of Nablus on February 22, which killed 11 Palestinians, the highest Palestinian death toll in a single Israeli operation since 2005.
The Nablus raid came a month after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians in a similar invasion of the Jenin refugee camp. After a siege that began on Monday, Israeli forces raided the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp with at least 20 armored vehicles, killing Hamdan on Wednesday and arresting at least four others.
Palestinian medics were filmed trying to revive Hamdan before Israeli forces took his body and held it.