RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

An elderly Palestinian man died Tuesday after Israeli soldiers assaulted him in the occupied West Bank, local media said.

Israeli army forces beat Palestinian residents with batons and rifle butts during the demolition of a house in Wadi Fukin, a town west of Bethlehem city, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Six people were injured in the attack, including Ghazi Badr Manasra, 70, who suffered a heart attack amid the violence and was later pronounced dead.

Video footage captured soldiers striking a group of Palestinians during the home demolition.

The Israeli army demolished seven Palestinian homes on Tuesday across various areas in the occupied West Bank, citing a lack of building permits.

Israel widely uses the pretext of a lack of construction permits to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C in the occupied West Bank, which is under Israel’s administrative and security control and constitutes around 60% of the West Bank.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Areas A, B, and C.

Tension has been high in the West Bank since the Israeli war on Gaza, killing at least 945 Palestinians and injuring over 7,000 others since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.