Now Israel shoots little Palestinian boy aged 3
Child in critical condition in hospital after army gunfire at settlement in occupied West Bank
A Palestinian boy aged three was in critical condition in a hospital on Friday morning after Israeli security forces shot him in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military claimed that gunmen had opened fire toward the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf, and soldiers at a guard post had returned fire.
Moments later, Israeli medics received reports that a Palestinian man and the child had been badly wounded. The man was rushed to a Palestinian hospital, while the little boy, after being resuscitated by Israeli medics, was airlifted to Sheba Hospital in Israel. The hospital said he was in critical condition.
The army opened an investigation into what it said was an unintentional shooting. It released grainy video footage showing what it claimed were the gunmen firing toward the settlement and said that it was searching for them.
But it said the incident was being reviewed, “it regrets harm to noncombatants” and it does “everything in its power to prevent such incidents.”
The shooting was the latest bloodshed in more than a year of renewed violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. That fighting has picked up since Israel’s new far-right government took office in late December. Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the two areas this year, the majority of whom were civilians including women and children. The Israeli military routinely opens live fire on stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence.
About 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which are illegal under international law.