Palestinian teen killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces as clashes erupted during an army raid on Saturday in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
“A 17-year-old boy was killed and an 18-year-old was critically wounded by the Israeli occupation’s bullets during its aggression on Jenin,” the ministry said in a statement.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the teenager as Amjad al-Fayed.
The Israeli army said that during ‘ operational activity’ near Kafr Dan, a village northwest of Jenin, ‘a number of suspects shot live fire at... soldiers from a passing vehicle. “The suspects also hurled Molotov cocktails and an explosive device toward the soldiers,” it said in a statement.
“The soldiers responded with live fire toward the suspects,” it added. “Hits were identified.”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed Fayed as a member and a ‘son’, praising him in a statement for confronting the Israeli soldiers with gunfire and explosive devices. At Fayed’s funeral in the Jenin refugee camp, armed members of the fighter group carried his coffin.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh condemned Fayed’s killing, stressing in remarks relayed by Wafa that ‘the international community should hold Israel accountable for its acts’.
A hub of armed Palestinian groups, the Jenin area in the northern West Bank has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces since a wave of anti-Israeli attacks in late March, with many of the perpetrators coming from there. The operations to track down suspects and clashes with Palestinians have often turned deadly for both sides.
Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, died when she was shot in the head near the Jenin refugee camp on May 11 while covering an Israeli raid.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 SixDay War and controls all entry points to the territory.