Israeli forces kill teen in West Bank crackdown
Palestinian paramedics evacuate a wounded protester during confrontations near the settlement of Beit El in the central West Bank on 14 December.
APA images
- 14 December 2018
Israeli forces shot and killed a teenager in Jalazone refugee camp as the military cracked down on the Ramallah area of the occupied West Bank after 24 hours of violence in which two soldiers and four Palestinians were killed.
The slain teen was identified as Mahmoud Yousif Nakhla. The health ministry in the West Bank gave his age as 16 but some media reported that he was 18 years old.
Ma’an News Agency, a Palestinian outlet, said that the teen was shot from less than 10 meters away and that soldiers attempted to withhold his body. Palestinian paramedics were only able to recover Nakhla’s body after arguing with soldiers for more than 30 minutes, according to Ma’an.
Compiled video clips from the scene show soldiers dragging and then carrying Nakhla, after which they stand guard around him. The video does not appear to show soldiers providing the teen with first aid.
بعد سحله وسحبه وهو مصاب.. هكذا تمكنت الطواقم الطبية من انتزاع جثمان الشهيد محمود نخلة من جنود الاحتلال الذين تركوه ينزف على الأرض. pic.twitter.com/UYEpHRNNUL— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) 14 December 2018
Nakhla appears to be alive in the final clip in the compiled footage as Palestinian medics put him on a stretcher and load him into an ambulance. Media reported that Nakhla was in critical condition when he arrived to hospital, where he was eventually pronounced dead.
A photo of Nakhla was published by Palestinian outlets after his death was announced:
استشهاد الشاب محمود يوسف نخلة (18 عامًا)، متأثرًا بإصابته بالرصاص الحيّ في بطنه خلال المواجهات مع الاحتلال في مخيم الجلزون برام الله. pic.twitter.com/EkOl7i3NAs— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) 14 December 2018
Jalazone refugee camp
Jalazone refugee camp, in the central West Bank, is located only 200 meters away from the Beit El settlement built by Israel in violation of international law, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population to the territory it occupies.
Soldiers guarding the settlement, which is bankrolled by David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, regularly harass children in the camp.
Israeli forces guarding Beit El have killed and seriously wounded several Palestinian children from Jalazone camp in recent years.
Last year soldiers in a watchtower next to Beit El fatally wounded Jassim Nakhla, 15, and Muhammad Khattab, 17, when they shot at a car carrying four children that had stalled on the road. It was not clear at time of publication whether Jassim Nakhla was a direct relation of Mahmoud Nakhla.
Two others were reported wounded by live fire during confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians near Ramallah on Friday.
A Palestinian boy, 17, was reported to have been moderately wounded after being hit in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet during confrontations in the northern West Bank on Friday afternoon.
Israeli forces also opened fire at a Palestinian ambulance in al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, on Friday.
Medics were transferring a patient to hospital when Israeli soldiers at Beit El checkpoint opened fire at the ambulance, Ma’an News Agency reported.
Also on Friday an Israeli soldier was reported to have been seriously injured at a military outpost near Beit El after being attacked with a rock and a knife by a Palestinian who fled the scene.
The gunmen who killed two soldiers and injured another two on Thursday also remained at large as the military searched for them for a second day, having arrested more than 100 Palestinians throughout the West Bank on Thursday and before dawn on Friday, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
The city of Ramallah was sealed by the military the previous day and remained so on Friday:
