In less than 24 hours, Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians, all under the age of 22, in the occupied West Bank, on Tuesday, Quds News Network reported.
Monday night, before dawn, Israeli special units raided the Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin city, while driving Palestinian-registrated vehicles, as security sources said. The well-armed Israeli special forces started raiding the Palestinians’ houses, occupied the houses’ roofs and fired live bullets indiscriminately at anyone moving.
The Israeli special forces killed a 22-year-old former detainee in Israeli prisons, Abdullah al-Husari, and critically injured two others in the head and abdomen. 18-year-old Shadi Najim was one of the two injured and he succumbed to his critical wounds in the head, hours later, medical sources said.
At around 5 p.m, 19-year-old Ammar Abu Afifa, a university student from Al-Arroub refugee camp, was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces’ live bullets at the entrance of the Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem. Abu Afifa was shot in the head, and his body was also confiscated by the Israeli soldiers after shooting him and leaving him bleeding to death.
“This policy [opening fire] reflects deep disregard for Palestinian lives and property and enables the continued use of lethal force, crucial to enabling Israel to retain its violent control over millions of Palestinians,” said Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem.
B’Tselem said it had recorded 77 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces in the West Bank last year. More than half of those killed were not implicated in any attacks, it noted.
Earlier in February, Amnesty International said in a new report that ‘Israel’ was carrying out “the crime of apartheid against Palestinians” and must be held accountable for treating them as “an inferior racial group”.