Friday, August 04, 2023

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in West Bank raid

Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, was fatally shot by Israeli forces at point blank range, according to eyewitnesses


Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, was killed by Israeli forces on Friday, 4 August 2023 (Social Media)

By MEE staff
Published date: 4 August 2023

Israeli forces killed an 18-year-old Palestinian during a military raid in the occupied West Bank on Friday morning.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that the dead teenager was Mahmoud Abu Saan, killed at the Nour Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarm.

Quoting Palestinian eyewitnesses, Wafa said that Abu Saan was shot in the head at point blank range and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Following the Israeli raid, a local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group opened fire on Israeli forces, detonating several explosive devices.

Human rights organisations have described night raids as one of the methods used by the Israeli army to terrorise Palestinians and hammer home the idea that even their safest spaces are not off-limits for Israeli soldiers.

The raids can last for hours and sometimes turn deadly.

According to testimonies taken by rights organisations, night raids leave permanent scars on Palestinian families, traumatising children in particular, who, as a result, suffer from anxiety and sleep disorders and struggle at school.

At least 202 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, including 34 children - a rate of nearly one fatality per day.

A total of 165 people have died in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making 2023 one of the bloodiest years in the occupied Palestinian territories. Another 36 people were killed in the Gaza Strip.

In latest violence, 18-year-old Palestinian killed during Israeli military raid


BY JULIA FRANKEL
August 4, 2023

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli security forces killed an 18-year-old Palestinian during a military raid into the northern West Bank on Friday, Palestinian health officials said, the latest bloodshed in a monthslong surge of violence in the occupied territory.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mahmoud Abu Saan was shot in the head by Israeli forces in the city of Tulkarem. The raid sparked fighting with residents of the camp, the local branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group reported, with Israeli forces shooting tear gas, stun grenades and live fire and Palestinians hurling stones and opening fire at the soldiers.

The Israeli army said soldiers shot at Palestinians in Tulkarem who threw stones and explosives at them. Violence has spiraled in the northern West Bank with the rise of shooting attacks by Palestinian groups against Israelis and daily arrest raids by the Israeli military, and Tulkarem has emerged as a stronghold of local militants.

Palestinian media reported that three wanted residents were arrested during Friday’s raid into the town.


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The Tulkarem raid was part of an Israeli military arrest operation overnight. The army said it arrested five Palestinians in other West Bank villages, confiscating explosives and dispersing protests in the village Biddu near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The surge in West Bank violence, which shows no signs of abating, is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in nearly two decades. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis so far this year.

Violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank intensified early last year when Israel expanded near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Israel says most killed have been militants who died during military raids, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and innocent bystanders have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

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