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Photo:
Scene. Published by Maan News
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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces raided the family home of 29-year-old Rafat Hirbawi -- who was shot dead by Israeli forces earlier on Tuesday after allegedly carrying out a vehicular attack -- in Hebron city in the southern occupied West Bank.

Hirbawi was killed after allegedly carrying out a vehicular attack at the entrance of Beit Einun north of Hebron. Two Israeli soldiers were lightly injured during the incident.

Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces surrounded and raided the home, and interrogated Hirbawi’s brother.

Following actual or alleged attacks on Israelis, Israeli authorities routinely target family members of the Palestinian assailants, often revoking their Israeli permits, detaining them, and punitively demolishing their homes.

Israeli soldiers and officers prevented journalists and locals from taking pictures or videos of the raid. Israeli forces also confiscated the mobile phone of Ma’an reporter Duaa al-Atrash as she was attempting to cover the incident, and removed all videos she had recorded before handing it back.

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the raid, telling Ma’an that the “assailant's home was raided following the attack,” but did not provide further details.

Israeli soldiers had also aggressively prevented journalists from covering the aftermath of Hirbawi's killing at the scene of the alleged car ramming attack.

Hirbawi, a resident of Ramallah city, was married and a father of two children. He was working as a food supplies distributor before being killed in the alleged attack.

According to Ma'an documentation, 45 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year -- eight of whom were killed in the past seven days alone.

Aws Muhammad Yousif Salameh, 17, and Saad Nasser Hassan Abd al-Fattah Salah, 20, were killed during clashes in Jenin refugee camp on July 12, while 18-year-old Baraa Hamamda died in similar circumstances in al-Duheisha refugee camp on July 14.

That same day, three Palestinian citizens of Israel, Muhammad Hamid Abd al-Latif Jabarin, 19, Muhammad Ahmad Mufdal Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabarin, 29, were killed by Israeli forces while carrying out a shooting attack which killed two Israeli police officers, who were also Palestinian citizens of Israel, in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem.

Ammar Ahmad Khalil, meanwhile, was killed during an Israeli army raid in the village of Nabi Salih on Sunday, as Israeli forces accused him of being involved in past shooting incidents.

Ten Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in 2017.

Activists, and rights groups have denounced what they have termed a "shoot-to-kill" policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death, or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner -- amid a backdrop of impunity for Israelis who committed the killings.