REUTERS, Ramallah

Israeli forces shot dead a wanted Palestinian suspect and arrested two dozen in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the military said, as tensions simmered ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to the region next week. Palestinian officials identified the man killed as Rafiq Ghannam, 20, shot by soldiers in the town Jaba near Jenin, where Israeli forces have stepped up raids in recent months after men from the area carried out deadly street attacks in Israel. “I heard Israeli forces shouting at a man, asking him to stop before I heard eight shots fired,” said a Palestinian Jaba resident, who asked not to be identified. The Israeli military said its forces were conducting counter-terrorism operations across the West Bank. The man killed had tried to escape the soldiers when they opened fire, the military said, adding that the soldiers provided first aid to him before he died. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that Israel was “preceding President Biden’s visit by more field executions and escalation of aggression against the Palestinian people”.