RAMALLAH (Palestinian Territories)(National times)- The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli forces killed a man in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday. “Bahaa Abdel-Rahman Rashid (38 years old) was killed by Israeli fire in the town of Odala, south of Nablus,” the health ministry said in a statement. Shortly before, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled the case of a man “who suffered a critical head injury during clashes in the town of Odala near Nablus, and CPR is currently being performed on him”. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said soldiers operating in the Odala area opened fire and hit one person after “a violent confrontation occurred in which terrorists hurled rocks” in the troops’ direction. Witness and Odala resident Muhammad al-Kharouf told AFP that Israeli troops were patrolling in Odala and threw tear gas canisters at men who were exiting the local mosque for Friday prayer. Rashid was killed by live fire in the clashes that followed, added Kharouf, who had been inside the mosque with him. The Israeli military said Friday it had completed a two-week counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank during which it killed six militants, and questioned dozens of suspects. It told AFP that Rashid was not among the six militants killed over the past two weeks. Dozens of men including Rashid’s father gathered at the nearby city of Nablus’ Rafidia hospital to bid him goodbye on Friday, an AFP journalist reported. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence in the territory has soared since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. It has not ceased despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October.Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, many of them militants, but also scores of civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures. At least 44 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.