ISRAELI soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager at Mazmoria checkpoint, east of Bethlehem, on Sunday afternoon – only a few hours after two Palestinian teenagers were fatally shot by Israeli troops near Jenin, according to medics.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint opened live fire and killed 17-year-old Naeem Safi, from the nearby village of al-Abidiya, with a live bullet in his neck.
The army denied access of medical teams to the scene to provide Safi with first aid, before he was announced dead. His body was later handed over to the Palestinian side.
Soldiers at the checkpoint claimed that Safi had attempted to stab some of them before they shot him dead.
This came only three hours after two Palestinian teenagers, Fo’ad Waked, 15, and Nehad Waked, 15, were fatally shot by Israeli troops near the village of al-Araqa, west of Jenin in northern West Bank. Some 174 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the third Intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories in early October 2015, according to the Ministry of Health. Over 15,000 others have reportedly been injured.
A 12-year-old student on Sunday was ‘deliberately’ run over by an Israeli military jeep during clashes that erupted with demonstrating students at the entrance of al-Aroub Refugee Camp to the north of Hebron, according to a local activist. The students were reportedly taking part in a student rally that kicked off toward the home of a local teenager, who was fatally shot by Israeli army on Wednesday, to attend his funeral.
Local Omar Yousif Jawabreh, 16, was fatally shot by armed soldiers during clashes that took place in the camp on Wednesday. Coordinator of the anti settlement and wall committee in northern Hebron, Mohammed Awad, said that Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint at the entrance of the camp, reportedly clashed with students and attempted to deliberately run over a number of them, before running over a 12-year-old boy. The unidentified student sustained moderate injuries.
Israeli forces continued to impose a severe blockade on the village of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem under the pretext of searching for a Palestinian on the run who allegedly stabbed an Israeli settler. Ibrahim Shakarneh, head of Nahalin village council said the general situation is becoming more difficult with the ongoing closure, which is increasing Palestinians suffering.
He said Israeli soldiers continue to patrol the area, occasionally raiding families’ homes and spreading panic among children. Shakarneh called on international human rights institutions to end the blockade and restore calm in the village.
This came as Israeli forces blocked off all entrances leading to the village, preventing Palestinian villagers from leaving and entering as large numbers of troops were deployed in and around the village. Occupation forces imposed the blockade last Tuesday after an Israeli settler was stabbed and wounded while jogging outside the nearby settlement of Neve Daniel. The suspected Palestinian attacker had fled in the direction of Nahhalin.
Israeli troops detained at least one Palestinian after breaking into and ransacking his house and many others were interrogated. At least three others had been detained a day before. According to Shakarneh, troops blocked all roads with earth mounds. They broke into and ransacked more houses, turned and occupied three other houses into military outposts.
He identified owners of the houses turned into military outposts as Jawdat and Ma’moun Najajreh as well as Hazem Shakarneh. Local Palestine TV reporter Hani Fannoun said that troops denied Palestine TV crew and other reporters access into the village. The previous week, Israeli forces blockaded the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya for three consecutive days following a fatal stabbing and shooting attack that claimed the life of a female soldier and wounded another in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) attorney Eyad Mahamid said on Sunday that prisoner Mohammad al-Muhr from the city of Jenin has been hunger striking for 42 days to protest his administrative detention. Mahamid said judges at the Salem Military court informed him that al-Muhr did not attend his hearing because he was moved to hospital.
Al-Muhr’s family said the prisoner has been hunger striking for 42 days before he was moved from Majedo prison. Prisoner al-Mahr was detained on November 11, 2015. The news about al-Mahr came as the Palestinian detainees and ex-detainees committee said the Israeli high court has ordered the military prosecution to respond to a request to move hunger striking prisoner Mohammad al-Qiq to a hospital in Ramallah.
The committee said in a press statement that the high court granted the military prosecution until 5pm on Sunday to reach a decision; al-Qiq is entering a very critical stage after symptoms of a heart stroke were detected. The committee demanded Israel meet al-Qiq’s demands, end his administrative detention and transfer him to a hospital in Ramallah to save his life and provide him with medical treatment.
Head of Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee Issa Qaraqi on Sunday said the administration of the Naqab prison holds full responsibility for the life of prisoner Rabi Jabarin, who received a renewed administrative detention order despite his deteriorating health condition. In a press release, Qaraqi said 31-year-old Jabarin is being subjected to a serious crime that is medical negligence and disregard of his critical health condition and worsening Cirrhosis.
Since his arrest, the prison’s administration continues to claim having no treatment and procrastinates in transferring him to an appropriate hospital. Prisoner Jabarin continues to show symptoms of severe Cirrhosis such as constant vomiting, constipation and inability to walk. The prisoners in Naqab prison are planning to protest in solidarity with Jabarin and to pressure for his release. Fifty prisoners will join the protest if Jabarin continues to suffer from the same situation.
Jabarin comes from Bethlehem and was arrested on August 19, 2015. He was handed an administrative detention order for four months and received a renewed order right after. He was imprisoned before and was released in 2012. Elsewhere on Sunday, Israeli authorities notified Palestinians in al-Baqa’a area, east of Hebron, to stop the construction of two homes, under the pretext of construction without an Israeli permit, according to local residents.
Staff from the so-called Israeli Civil Administration accompanied by a military escort broke into al-Baqa’a, where they handed local Palestinians a written notification ordering them to stop the ongoing construction of the two homes. The Israeli military cited construction without a permit as a pretext for the stop-construction order of the two homes, which belong to Nemer Jaber and Hani Jaber, two local Palestinians.
Al-Baqa’a is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military and civil control. Issuance of construction permits by Israeli authorities for Palestinians in Area C, unlike for Israeli settlers, requires unreasonable fees that most Palestinians cannot afford to pay. Over the course of 2015, Israel demolished 521 structures in Area C as well as in East Jerusalem, displacing 636 people, according to the UN monitoring group OCHA.
The vast majority of these demolitions were carried out on the grounds of construction without a permit. Between 2010 and 2014, only 1.5 per cent of applications for building permits in Area C were approved by Israeli occupation authorities, OCHA adds. The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) explains in a special report that ‘in almost all cases Palestinians have no choice but to build “illegally” as permits are almost impossible to obtain’.
The committee adds: ‘Many Palestinians have suffered multiple displacements, having lost their homes and livelihoods more than once. Forced displacement has a series of immediate and longer-term physical, socio-economic and psycho-social impacts on Palestinian families.’
