Israeli police shoot teenager dead
Officers claimed he was threatening them with a knife
JERUSALEM // A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli border police in the occupied West Bank yesterday.
Israeli forces claimed he threatened them with a knife at Tapuah junction, also known as the Zaatara checkpoint, near the city of Nablus. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri identified the teenager as an 18-year-old from the West Bank city of Qalqilya. Locals identified him as 19-year-old Jihad Hussein Harb, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. They also said he was from Qalqiliya.
Harb’s killing is the latest in a wave of violence across Israel and occupied Palestinian that began at the start of October last year.
His death brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis since then to 242, Maan reported.
Five of those were killed at Tapuah junction.
Thirty-four Israelis have been killed in the same time period, said Maan.
Most of the Palestinian victims were killed by Israeli security forces who claimed they were carrying out, or were about to carry out, attacks on Israelis.
However, rights groups have criticised Israel for using disproportionate force against suspected attackers and for carrying out extrajudicial killings.
Harb’s killing is the latest in a wave of violence that began in October last year