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One Palestinian has been killed and two others injured after they were run over by a bus with an Israeli number plate in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported. The incident took place on Tuesday evening near an Israeli military checkpoint at the entrance on the village of Bartaa, which lies on the Green Line between Israel and the Palestinian territories. Nour Hassan Salem, 21, died of his injuries, while his cousin and his friend remain were being treated in a hospital. Shaher Balalem, who was with his friends but survived the incident, said the young men were crossing the street before the bus hit them directly. It was unclear if the incident was an intentional attack or an accident. A cousin of the deceased told Al Jazeera that the men, who come from Nablus, worked at shops in Bartaa and had permits from the Israeli authorities to enter the village. Since Israel built the separation wall in 2003, the eastern part of Bartaa became a totally enclosed enclave with two Israeli-controlled gates to the rest of the West Bank. Palestinian residents in the village of Bartaa, south west of Jenin city, complain of restrictions imposed of them by the Israeli army and attacks by Jewish settlers. The UN condemned the restrictions imposed by Israeli military, saying that residents faced “abuse and intimidation at the gates of the enclave on a number of occasions”. Tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank have been high since June, when Palestinians kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Israelis retaliated by abducting and burning alive a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem. The kidnappings set off a series of events that led to the 50-day Gaza war, which left more than 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis dead. Revenge attacks from both sides have been happening since summer.
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