THE Fatah movement in southern Hebron declared a day of mourning on Wednesday after a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces who had invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp.
Muhammad Abu Hashhash, 17, died on Tuesday afternoon after succumbing to a live bullet wound to his heart. He was shot by Israeli forces during clashes earlier that day in al-Fawwar refugee camp in the West Bank district of Hebron, when dozens of other Palestinian youth were injured, private homes were ransacked, and many residents were interrogated.
On the same day, 46-year-old Naim Shawamrah died in Hebron’s al-Ahli Hospital after a painful struggle with muscular dystrophy. He was a former Palestinian prisoner who served 19 years in Israeli custody. The occupation is killing Palestinians of all ages and all generations.
The Israeli forces withdrew from devastated al-Fawwar, leaving one Palestinian teen killed, and 45 injured. An Israeli army spokeswoman reported that the camp had been raided overnight on Tuesday in an ‘operational activity to uncover weaponry’ and a search for wanted Palestinians. She added that no Israeli injuries were reported, with the exception of one Israeli soldier who was lightly injured by a thrown rock.
So it is one rock against machine guns in occupied Palestine! No inhabitant of the camp was safe after large numbers of Israeli troops from three army units surrounded it around dawn on Tuesday, then began ransacking homes, interrogating residents in the streets – after placing snipers on the rooftops of Palestinian homes to kill anyone who objected to the assault on the camp.
The Palestinian people and the Palestinian youth however have enormous courage and are determined to regain their country. The local youth reacted to the Zionist forces by challenging the snipers and the Israeli troops carrying automatic rifles by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
The end result was that many Palestinians, both youth and adults, were left lying injured in the streets of the refugee camp – however because of their heroic actions, Palestine is still alive and fighting for its freedom. Muhammad Abu Hashhash, age 17, died on Tuesday afternoon after being shot in the heart by Israeli forces with live ammunition.
The Israeli soldiery did their best to ensure that his was not the only death. Witnesses said that all medics were prevented from entering the site, and that Israeli soldiers stopped an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent which was trying to evacuate a seriously injured young man, preventing the ambulance from leaving the camp for an hour. That young man was Abu Hashhash.
The Fatah movement in southern Hebron declared Wednesday a day of mourning for Abu Hashhash. Thirty eight other live fire injuries were treated at the hospital, mainly in the thighs and legs, and some in the arms. General Director of the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, Youssef al-Takruri, said that five Palestinians were treated there – four for gunshot injuries in the legs and one for a chest wound.
Several residents of the refugee camp said that Israeli soldiers stole money and gold while searching their houses, destroying their belongings, and taking pictures of some of the residents. Tuesday’s raid on al-Fawwar was one of many. They are a daily occurrence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with a weekly average of 78 search and detention raids carried out since the start of 2016, according to UN documentation.
Abu Hashhash was among 218 Palestinians to have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of a wave of unrest across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October. Workers in the UK and throughout the world must give their full support to the Palestinian masses battling against an occupation that has borrowed its methods from the former British mandate and the Nazi occupations during the Second World War.
Workers in the UK must take action in support of the Palestinians. They must demand that the TUC at its September Congress pass a resolution declaring a full boycott and blockade of Israel, and that it must also tell the Tories that they must stop arming and supporting Israel or face strike action by the trade unions to bring them down.
