Four Palestinians killed in West Bank attacks, clashes

Israeli forces and security guards killed four Palestinians Thursday, among them three who Israel said were carrying out attacks on soldiers in the West Bank, the latest in a three month-long wave of unrelenting Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The four separate incidents came as revelers were gathering in the West Bank city of Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations, festivities that have been overshadowed for years by Israel’s occupation and periodic outbursts of violence.

Israeli authorities said that three Palestinians — identified by locals as 25-year-old Eiad Ideis, and 22-year-olds Wisam Ghwaila and Muhammad Zahran — were killed after they carried out or attempted to carry out attacks against Israelis across the West Bank. A fourth Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli troops, according to a Palestinian hospital official.

In the first incident, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attacker approached the entrance to an industrial zone in the Ariel settlement and stabbed two security guards, wounding them moderately, before they shot and killed him.

Two other Palestinians were killed in separate incidents, including an attack by a motorist on Israeli troops, with one soldier lightly wounded.

The fourth Palestinian, identified by locals as 23-year-old Bilal Zayed, who died in clashes with the Israeli military in the Qalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank, was shot in the head by live fire, according to Ahmad Bitawi, the director of Ramallah hospital.

The Israeli military said it entered the refugee camp to carry out an arrest when troops encountered a "violent mob" that opened fire at the Israeli forces and threw firebombs at them. The military said troops responded by firing at the gunmen.

Thursday's killings come on the heels of months of escalated violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank — including East Jerusalem — and the Gaza Strip.

At least 134 Palestinians — including unarmed demonstrators, bystanders and assailants — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers. The figure includes 26 children, according to the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health.

During that same period, the Israeli Red Cross has documented the killing of 20 Israelis, a U.S. citizen and an Eritrean who was shot dead and viciously assaulted by Israelis after being mistaken for a Palestinian attacker.

Israel says the unrelenting violence is fanned by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement. Palestinians say they are protesting Israel's ongoing occupation and Jewish settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound — the third holiest site for Muslims as well as the site of an ancient Jewish temple —in East Jerusalem.

Also Thursday, police said they were investigating the "many serious offenses" seen in a video of Jews aired Wednesday on Israeli Channel 10 TV. The video purported to show a wedding attended by Jewish radicals last week, where revelers stabbed pictures of a Palestinian toddler killed in an arson attack earlier this year, danced with rifles belonging to the Israeli military and in one case, held a mock firebomb in the air. The report said the people were friends of the suspects in the arson on the Palestinian home in July.

Israeli leaders have expressed outrage at the video. "The shocking pictures that were broadcast show the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Al Jazeera and wire services