‘Israeli troops shoot Palestinian teen in back near Ramallah’

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat December 7, 2013 | Edit

Witnesses, Israeli army offer contradictory stories about whether clashes were taking place, but neither suggest the boy took part in any violence. The teen, Wajih Wajdi al-Ramahi, is pronounced dead at a Ramallah hospital.

Israeli forces reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy as he stood outside of a school in the al-Jalazoun refugee camp Saturday afternoon.

Residents of the camp, which is located in between Ramallah and the Israeli settlement of Beit El, told Maan news agency that Wajih Wajdi al-Ramahi was standing outside of the camp’s school when he was shot in the back with live ammunition.

According to AFP, al-Ramahi was the 26th Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army since the start of 2013.

An unnamed Israeli army source told Israeli news site Walla that “a unit from the Givati Brigade was operating in the camp in order to locate stone throwers. During the course of their operations, a violent incident developed while soldiers were attempting to arrest a suspect. They shot in the air and for an unknown reason the youth was shot.”

However, residents of al Jazaloun told Maan that there were no clashes or violence that “might have provoked the killing.”

On Twitter, Palestinian journalist and activist Linah Alsaafin remarked: “People stressing how there were no clashes/rock throwing going on, but even if there was so what? Not an excuse for murdering a child!”

While Maan and Walla both report that al Ramahi was 14, AFP and activists on Twitter put the boy’s age at 15. Others said he was 13.

Palestinians from the camp immediately began protesting.

A local journalist told +972 that al Jazaloun residents began to protest in Ramallah’s city center and asked storekeepers to close their shops. The protest was stopped when Palestinian Authority police forces arrived and ordered the refugees from al Jazaloun to go back to the camp; stores remained closed in Ramallah’s city center.

Palestinian authorities said they would conduct an autopsy Sunday morning, Ynet reported (Hebrew).

On Friday, Israeli forces shot two Palestinians in Bethlehem near the separation barrier at Aida refugee camp.

Related:
PHOTOS: Israeli forces shoot Palestinians with live fire in Bethlehem
IDF closes probe into killing of Mustafa Tamimi in Nabi Saleh 

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat is a writer and independent journalist based in South Florida after almost a decade in Israel/Palestine. Her book, The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel's New Others (Pluto Press) was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize. Her reportage and commentary has been published in The Nation, The NY Times, Haaretz, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian and many other outlets. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Slate, Guernica, the Jewish Quarterly, Narrative, and The Kenyon Review. She is currently working on a memoir.

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