Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian bystander and seriously injured four other Palestinian teens early Tuesday morning in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after Palestinian youth nearby allegedly threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli settlers.
Mahmoud Raafat Badran, 15, from the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta was confirmed dead by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Head of the village council of Beit Ur al-Tahta Abdul Karim Kassem told Reuters that Mahmoud and his friends were in a car “returning from a pool in a village near us when they came under fire,” by Israeli forces.
Palestinian boy 'mistakenly' killed by Israeli troops after British man injured in rock throwing attack https://t.co/5zvdAS1BYn
— Telegraph World News (@TelegraphWorld) June 21, 2016
Israeli media outlets initially reported that 15-year-old Mahmoud, a “terrorist,” had been one of the stone throwers, though he was later revealed to be a bystander in the incident.
An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that after a number of Palestinian youth hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at moving Israeli settler vehicles in Ramallah, “Israeli forces acted to protect additional vehicles from immediate danger and fired toward the suspects and bystanders were mistakenly hit”.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that three Palestinian bystanders injured alongside Mahmoud sustained serious injuries after being shot by Israeli forces in the head and chest, and were evacuated to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah City, while the fourth was taken to Israel’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem.
When you shower a vehicle with bullets, you don't get to say you mistakenly killed a kid. Israel executed 15 year old Mahmoud Raafat Badran
— Remi Kanazi (@Remroum) June 22, 2016
Local Palestinian sources told Ma’an that Mahmoud’s body is still being held by Israeli forces.
Mahmoud’s father is a former prisoner who was freed from Israeli custody in 1999 after serving a 15-year sentence, locals said.
(MA’AN, PC)
