A 15-year-old Palestinian child is the latest casualty in the ongoing Israeli military violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Khaled Samer al-Za’anin, 15, was shot in the Bab Al-Amud area in East Jerusalem’s Old City late Wednesday, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Local sources said that the boy was left bleeding on the ground as no medical aid was allowed to reach him.
#Israeli occupation forces searched the family home of Khaled al-Za'anin, 15, in Beit Hanina. The boy was killed on Wednesday night near Bab Al-Amud, in occupied East #Jerusalem. (Video: via Al-Qastal) pic.twitter.com/wRYNASYjdE
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) August 30, 2023
While Palestinian sources say that the boy was killed in cold blood, Israeli media claim that al-Za’anin tried to stab an illegal Jewish settler.
Just before the shooting, Palestinian eyewitnesses said that the boy was initially attacked by illegal settlers and Israeli police, before an Israeli officer opened fire from a close distance, killing the boy.
Video footage circulating on social media showed the boy lying on the ground, bleeding, with a large number of Israeli occupation police and illegal settlers surrounding the area.
According to WAFA, the Israeli occupation police attacked Palestinian journalists to prevent them from reaching the site.
14 yo kid from the Beit Hanina neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) August 30, 2023
Later in the evening, a large number of Israeli occupation soldiers raided the house of Za’anin in the town of Beit Hanina, in the northern occupied East Jerusalem.
After wreaking havoc inside the house, soldiers attacked mourners who came to the Za’anin family home to show solidarity with the bereaved parents.
Nearly 230 Palestinians, many of whom are children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories since the start of 2023.
United Nations officials have declared that this year is the most violent one in terms of Palestinian casualties in the West Bank since 2005.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
