Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy in occupied West Bank raid
Jerusalem, Sep 15 (EFE).- Israeli forces killed a teenage Palestinian boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the Palestinian government reported.
“Odai Trad Salah, 17, was shot in the head by Israeli occupation soldiers in Kafr Dan village, Jenin governorate,” the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
Salah’s death brings the number of Palestinians killed this year to more than 100, many of whom were in Israeli military raids.
The Israeli security forces have intensified raids and “counterterrorism” operations across the West Bank since April, following a wave of attacks against Israeli settlers and military targets.
The Israeli military has not confirmed the raid in Jenin yet, but, according to local media, the troops were there to locate and later demolish the houses of two Palestinians involved in a shooting attack that left a senior Israeli military officer dead on Wednesday.
The two Palestinians, Ahmed and Abdel Rahman Abed, were killed during a firefight near the Gilboa checkpoint in the northern part of the West Bank.
A 30-year-old Israeli officer was injured in the gunfire and hours later, he succumbed to his wounds.
For decades, Israel has demolished the family homes of Palestinians accused of committing deadly attacks, even before the suspects are convicted, a policy denounced as “collective punishment” by human rights entities.
In early April, the Israeli army launched the operation “Break the Wave” in the occupied West Bank in response to five attacks perpetrated by Palestinians on Israeli territory, in which 18 people were killed.
Since then, more than 100 Palestinians have died and 2,000 others arrested amid operations that have mainly taken place in Nablus and Jenin, according to Palestinian official figures.
Among the Palestinians killed were armed militiamen who responded with violence to Israeli raids in the West Bank, but there were also unarmed civilians, minors and journalists, such as Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. EFE
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