AQABAT JABR (West Bank): A growing wave of unrest between Israelis and Palestinians claimed two more lives on Monday, after a poll showed plummeting support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party amid a divisive plan to rein in the Supreme Court’s powers.
A Palestinian teen was killed during a military raid in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, while hospital officials said the mother of two Israeli sisters killed last week in their car by a suspected Palestinian gunman had died of her injuries.
The poll, for Channel 13 News, showed Likud would lose more than a third of its seats if an election were held now, and Netanyahu would fail to gain a majority with his hard-right coalition partners.
In a sign of Israel’s fracturing political faultlines, thousands of Israelis marched towards Evyatar, an evacuated outpost in the West Bank, in support of the expansion of settlements.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged this year, with frequent military raids and violence by Israeli settlers amid a spate of Palestinian attacks. More than 90 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have been killed since January.
Tensions have risen following Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound last week, which triggered rocket attacks on Israel that were met with Israeli strikes in Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria.
The Palestinian health ministry said 15-year-old Mohammad Balhan sustained gunshot wounds to his head, chest and abdomen after an Israeli raid near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces operated in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, adjacent to Jericho, to apprehend Palestinians suspected in involvement in attacks against Israelis.
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