Jenin /PNN/

Two Palestinians identified as Ahmad Ayman Abed, 23, and Abdul Rahman Hani Abed, 22, from the town of Kufr Dan, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, were killed early this morning by Israeli army gunfire at Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin, as confirmed by the Ministry of Health.

Sources said the army, which later declared that the checkpoint, considered a crossing into Israel, will be closed for traffic until Friday, summoned the fathers of the two killed to identify them.

The two were named by Palestinian media as Ahmed Abed and Abdul Rahman Abed, from the village of Kafr Dan near Jenin.

The Israeli occupation military said in a statement that the two Palestinians were detected near a security barrier close to the village of Jalamah, which lies north of the West Bank city of Jenin, early on Wednesday morning.

The statement further alleged that soldiers from the Nahal Brigade surrounded the pair and attempted to arrest them, but they opened fire on the troopers. The soldiers returned fire and neutralized the suspects.

A total of 97 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank since the start of the year.

The incident comes less than 24 hours after an engineering vehicle belonging to the Israeli ministry of military affairs came under gunfire as it was working along the security barrier in the same area. There were no injuries, but the vehicle was damaged.

On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned that the intensified Israeli military crackdown in the occupied territories will inevitably push the West Bank to the verge of a major explosion, arguing that Israeli factions are fueling the violence for the sake of their own political interests.

Israel is hiding behind the absence of a political horizon and the world’s preoccupation with the fallout of the Ukraine conflict. The legislative elections, which will be held on November 1, cannot cover up the Israeli regime’s crimes, Shtayyeh said at the opening of a weekly cabinet session in the central West Bank city of Ramallah.