JERUSALEM (Parliament Politics Magazine) – An Israeli soldier shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during skirmishes in the West Bank on Monday, which Israel said it was as an operation to destroy the residence of a “terrorist” accused of a recent attack.
Mohammed Abu Salah was slain in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Silat Al-Harithiya, close to the flashpoint town of Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In a statement, Israel’s army stated that the troops had made an entrance in the village with border police “to demolish the floor of the residence in which the terrorist Muhammad Jaradat resided.”
According to the report, Jaradat and others were involved in the deadly shooting of a Jewish settler in the West Bank recently.
“Violent riots” erupted ahead of the planned demolition, the army said, with “hundreds of Palestinians” taking part, some of whom tossed bombs at Israeli troops.
“The troops detected a number of armed rioters and fired at them to minimise the threat,” the army statement read, without explicitly addressing the teen’s death.
Critics have condemned the practice, which frequently inflames tensions, as a form of collective punishment. Israel claims to be able to deter assaults.
Jaradat, according to the army, was responsible for Yehuda Dimentman’s death. He was a 25-year-old religious student who was killed in the West Bank in December.
Dimentman, a married father, was a student at a religious school in the West Bank town of Homesh when he was slain in a gunshot that also injured several others.
Many people were arrested in Israel days following the shooting.
In the West Bank, around 475,000 Jewish settlers reside alongside 2.9 million Palestinians in communities largely recognised as illegal under international law.
Homesh is one of the illegitimate settlements that even Israel considers to be unauthorised.
Despite the fact that it was evacuated by Israeli forces in 2005, Israelis have continued operation there, escalating tensions with Palestinians.
Since the 1967 Six-Day War the West Bank has been occupied by Israel.
Image via Reuters
