Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinian men in a raid at a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jericho. According to Israeli officials, the raid was part of a search for two gunmen who attempted an attack on a restaurant in a nearby Israeli settlement that was aborted after one of the attackers’ guns malfunctioned. Palestinians have decried what they describe as an Israeli siege that has been carried out in Jericho since the aborted attack. Monday’s casualties are just the latest in what has been the most violent year for the Israel-Palestine conflict in a decade and a half, with over 40 Palestinians and seven Israelis killed. Most of the Palestinians have been killed in firefights connected to Israeli incursions into the West Bank, while all of the Israeli casualties occurred in a Jan. 27 mass shooting outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem. Monday’s violence marks a tragic turn for the normally peaceful city of Jericho, which typically draws tourists to its famous historical sites.
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