Zionist Forces Gun Down Palestinian Teen in West Bank
Zionist forces have shot dead a Palestinian teenager in fresh clashes at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim as 17-year-old Muhammad Abu Hashhash, saying he died after being “shot in the chest during clashes with [Israeli forces] in the Fawwar camp,” located near the city of al-Khalil (Hebron).
Meanwhile, Palestinian Red Crescent spokeswoman, Errab Foqoha, told the Ma’an news agency that Abu Hashhash succumbed to injuries sustained when he was “shot with live ammunition in the heart.”
Tuesday’s scuffles in the Fawwar refugee camp also left at least 32 Palestinians injured.
The violence broke out after Israeli forces stormed the camp at Tuesday dawn, ransacked homes and interrogated residents.
The Israeli regime’s troops further fired live gunshots, tear gas, and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian youths.
According to witnesses, the Israeli soldiers prevented a Palestinian ambulance, which was carrying an injured Palestinian, from leaving the camp for an hour.
Israeli police and soldiers have come under heavy criticism for “extrajudicial executions” of Palestinian citizens, who did not pose a threat or who could have been detained through non-lethal means.
The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in an alleged bid to change the status quo of the Muslim site.
More than 230 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in what is regarded as the third Palestinian Intifada (uprising) since the beginning of last October.
Zionist entity arrested 560 Palestinian minors in al-Quds in 2016
On the other hand, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs says Zionist regime forces have detained 560 Palestinian children in East Jerusalem al-Quds so far this year.
Issa Qaraqe, the committee head, released the figure while speaking with the families of Palestinian child prisoners in the Shu’fat refugee camp on Tuesday.
Qaraqe said that Palestinian children younger than 12 were taken into Israeli custody in violation of human rights and international law.
He further noted that 110 minors are still being held in Israeli prisons, with 60 children under house arrest despite being released from jail.
Meanwhile, Amjad Abu Asab, the head of the Jerusalem Committee for Families of Prisoners, stressed that most Palestinian child prisoners were beaten and assaulted by Israeli regime forces.
Some of the minors were wounded and denied the right to have a family member present during their interrogation, he said, adding that the child prisoners are put under pressure that has “long term effects on their psyche.”
The father of Zayd al-Husseni, a minor who was detained by regime forces, said that his son was “beaten monstrously while 100 Israeli soldiers raided their home and also let police dogs assault [Zayd].”
The father of Majd Saaeda, a minor who fell into a coma in Israel’s Megiddo prison, called on international organizations and rights groups to “interfere immediately” to save his son’s life, and to release all kids in Israeli detention.
Last month, the rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) published a report, analyzing 65 cases in which Palestinian minors were put behind bars and handed down prison sentences.
The DCIP report found that the vast majority – 87.7 percent – of the Palestinian youths were restrained during arrest.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, among them 350 children, are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails.
Many of the detainees are held under the so-called administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months.
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