Palestinian teen killed by Israeli gunfire in West Bank clashes
Jerusalem, Oct 12 (EFE).- An 18-year-old Palestinian was shot dead Wednesday by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the occupied West Bank, on a tense day of violence that also spread to Jerusalem.
The deceased young man was identified as Osama Mahmud Adawi by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
Adawi was shot multiple times during clashes with Israeli troops in the Arroub refugee camp near the West Bank city of Hebron and died shortly afterwards in a nearby hospital.
Another Palestinian youth was injured by Israeli gunfire – also in Arroub – while three more were hospitalized for gunshot wounds during clashes with security forces in different parts of the West Bank.
According to WAFA, the clashes took place amid Palestinian protests against Israel’s forced closure of the Shuafat refugee camp and the nearby town of Anata, both in occupied East Jerusalem.
The closure of these areas, whose more than 100,000 inhabitants have been locked in for the past five days, followed an attack at an Israeli military checkpoint in Shuafat perpetrated by a Palestinian, which resulted in the death of an 18-year-old female soldier.
Israeli forces have since been trying to capture the attacker, who fled the scene.
Protests against the closure of these towns also took place inside the Shuafat camp itself, where some residents clashed with Israeli troops.
In a show of solidarity with the residents of Shuafat, who say they are being collectively punished by Israel for Saturday’s attack, a large number of Palestinian businesses and schools in East Jerusalem were closed on Wednesday.
The attack at the weekend was followed Tuesday by another in the northern West Bank, where Palestinians fired from a vehicle at a group of soldiers, wounding one of them who died hours later.
Those responsible for that incident are also on the run. Efforts on Wednesday to capture them included the partial closure of the city of Nablus, which is near to the site of the attack and one of the main hotspots of Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent months.
The death of the two Israeli soldiers means seven members of the security forces have been killed this year in violent incidents.
On the Palestinian side, there are already 116 dead in violent incidents or armed clashes with Israeli security forces or settlers in the West Bank in 2022, which is already the most violent year in the region since the so-called Knife Intifada of 2015. EFE
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