Ramallah: Israeli occupation forces shot and killed yet another Palestinian teen in the Al Musrara neighorhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday.
According to eyewitnesses speaking to Gulf News, 16-year-old Eshaq Badran was being harassed by two Israeli colonists while walking in Al Musrara.
“It seemed that he was carrying the knife for his protection and he attacked the colonists after being harassed,” according to Mazen Abu Qalbain, a Palestinian activist in occupied East Jerusalem.
Several Israeli occupation soldiers surrounded Badran and shot him multiple times. Following Badran’s murder, Israeli forces raided his family home in Kofr Aqab where Palestinian youths rushed to protest the murder and subsequent raid.
Several Palestinians were wounded in the ensuing clashes and had to be hospitalised.
The murder of Badran comes amid a string attacks between colonists and Palestinians the past week resulting in deaths on both sides.
On Friday, a 22-year-old Palestinian was also shot by occupation forces in the occupied east Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood. He died on Saturday and clashes erupted after his funeral, and one Palestinian was shot in the leg by Israeli forces.
Also on Friday seven Palestinians in Gaza were shot dead by Israeli forces, including a 15-year-old, and 145 wounded, after an attempt to rush the border with the Israeli regime.
The sharp increase in violence comes amid extreme tension in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem after unprecedented restrictions were imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on Palestinians seeking access to their own holy site at Al Haram Al Sharif. Palestinians say that the restrictions are part of a plan to ‘change the facts on the ground by completely erasing Palestinian and Muslim identity from the holy city in an attempt to Judaise occupied East Jerusalem’.
Jewish colonist groups have insisted on accessing the Muslim holy site to perform Jewish rituals and prayers, which goes against the status quo of allowing Jews to visit the site but not perform prayers. Israeli occupation forces have escorted the colonists giving them protection, which has angered Palestinians. Calls to defend the Muslim site increased after Israel banned Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem under the age of 50 from accessing the site. Palestinians from 1948 areas answered the call and rushed to the site to try to prevent the colonist invaders from praying there. Clashes have erupted inside Al Haram Al Sharif as Israeli occupation forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas to try to disperse the protesters. Palestinians repeatedly barricaded themselves inside Al Aqsa mosque, located at the sacred site, and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the invading policemen. The tension has extended beyond the holy city as violence has erupted in the West Bank and also the 1948 areas. With the attacks spilling into the 1948 areas, Netanyahu has warned Israelis to be on guard.
In another sign of the tensions, the Israeli occupation’s “mayor” in occupied Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, was seen carrying an assault rifle while visiting a Palestinian neighbourhood.
