Israel kills Palestinian stone-thrower, detains 18 in West Bank

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man during clashes with stone-throwers in the occupied West Bank on Monday as tensions mounted over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Israeli army forces also detained 18 Palestinians, including 11 Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank, according to a local NGO.

"Israeli army units stormed several West Bank cities and detained eleven Hamas legislators," Fouad al-Khafsh, the director of the Ahrah Studies Center, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the Israelis also detained Abdel Sattar Qassem, a professor and author of numerous publications on Palestinian history and Islamic thought, from his house.

Qassem is an outspoken critic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and peace talks with Israel.

Al-Khafsh said the Israeli army also launched a wide detention campaign in the southern city of Hebron, detaining six Hamas members.
Israeli authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society, a local NGO, said earlier that the Israeli army had detained around 1000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the disappearance and the subsequent death of three Jewish teens in June.

It said that the detained Palestinians included 23 lawmakers as well as 60 ex-detainees who were released as part of a 2011 prisoner swap.

Israeli authorities have been launching a restless campaign of detention in the West Bank since three Jewish teens went missing in a southern West Bank settlement on June 12.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of kidnapping the three teens, whose dead bodies were found in late June.

The Israeli army has also been pounding the Gaza Strip since Monday, killing at least 173 Palestinians, injuring more than 1200 people and destroying hundreds of homes.