Ramallah: Israeli occupation forces shot and killed a Palestinian teen from Ramallah on Thursday, after raiding the nearby village of Kofr Aqab to demolish the house of a Palestinian who attacked and killed two Israelis last October.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced that Ahmad Nasha’at Othman Al Kharobi 19, died during fierce clashes which erupted when Israelis attempted to demolish the home of Musbah Abu Sobh, who attacked and killed an Israeli soldier and a female colonist in Shaikh Jarah, occupied East Jerusalem.
Several youths from the surrounding villages and towns gathered in Kofr Aqab to try to block the demolition.
The sources said that the neighbours initially lodged a petition with the Israeli Higher Court of Justice to spare Abu Sobh’s house, and in turn, spare themselves financial damages, provided that the apartment be registered in the name of the father and not Musbah himself.
The court, however, rejected the petition, and ordered the occupation forces to demolish all the apartment’s walls and permanently seal it.
The occupation forces regularly demolish the houses of attackers as a part of a broader policy of collective punishment.
Home demolitions have been decried by the international community as collective punishment but the US has failed to get Israel to stop the practice.
Palestinians say the occupation forces used live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, and Al Kharobi was shot in the neck.
He was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The sources told Gulf News that at least three other Palestinian teens have also been hospitalised in critical condition.
After Al Kharobi’s death, fierce clashes erupted in several other areas of the Qalandiyah refugee camp.
Violence has been escalating in the area since October 2015 when Israel stepped up its raids on the Muslim holy site of Al Haram Al Sharif in occupied Jerusalem.
Over 275 Palestinians have lost their lives in clashes with the occupation forces, as well as in stabbings and car ramming attacks which have rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Palestinians view these attacks as necessary to protect Al Haram Al Sharif — the third holiest site in Islam.
International legal and human rights organisations have documented Israel’s practice of extrajudicial executions among other crimes contrary to international law.
