Cairo (Egypt), May 31 (LaPresse/AP) – A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces today near the concrete barrier separating the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem. This was reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which identified the victim as Imad Haroun Ishtayeh, 26, from the town of Salim, east of Nablus. According to the ministry, Israeli forces shot the young man in the thigh in the town of al-Ram, and he was later pronounced dead at the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah. Images circulating online show people carrying his body and descending a ladder leaning against the barrier topped with barbed wire. Ishtayeh was apparently attempting to cross the barrier from the West Bank into Israel. Many people have been shot while trying to cross the barrier, including a 44-year-old father killed earlier this month. In recent years, a growing number of Palestinians from the West Bank have sought to enter Israel illegally to work. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were in the process of obtaining Israeli work permits, but access was severely restricted after the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas in southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Since then, unemployment in the West Bank has risen due to the economic slowdown. According to a report Sunday by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, approximately 50 workers have been killed by Israeli fire and over 38,000 have been arrested, although many were subsequently released.