An Israeli soldier was arrested in connection with the fatal May 15 shootings of two Palestinian teenagers in the town of Beituniya in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli police spokesman told Ma’an news agency Wednesday.
Six months later also in Beituniya, Israeli forces early Wednesday shot and seriously injured a Palestinian man and detained another after raiding an apartment building in the town south of Ramallah.
Israeli forces in May opened fire on Palestinians marking the 66th anniversary of the Nakba, killing 15-year-old Mohammed Abu al-Thaher and 17-year-old Nadim Nawara.
Israeli spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no information was available regarding the arrest.
Israeli news site Ynet reported that even though Israeli forces had initially insisted that live fire was not used that day, the Israeli investigation proved the opposite and Palestinian medical sources said time and again that the two teens were shot dead.
The incident was caught on camera, as CCTV footage showed that the two teens were not even participating in clashes when they were shot dead, and hence posed no threat to Israeli forces.
Amnesty International condemned the killings, accusing Israeli forces of “repeatedly resorting to extreme violence in response to Palestinian protests against occupation, discrimination, confiscation of land, and construction of unlawful settlements.”
Rifat Kassis, executive director of Defense for Children International — Palestine, said at the time that “the footage caught on camera show unlawful killings,” asserting that the teenagers didn’t pose “direct and immediate” threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers.
“Such actions by Israeli forces may amount to war crimes, and the Israeli authorities must conduct serious, impartial, and thorough investigations to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes,” Kassis said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces early Wednesday shot and seriously injured a Palestinian man and detained another after raiding an apartment building in Beituniya, locals said.
Locals told Ma’an that Israeli Occupation Forces stormed the Khdeir building in the town and broke into an apartment and shot Ahmed Hussana twice in the feet and a third time in the waist.
Witnesses said Hussana was left bleeding in the apartment for 30 minutes before Israeli soldiers allowed a Palestinian ambulance to take him to the hospital.
The soldiers detained another man from the building, who was identified as Samir Awwad, locals said.
Israeli police told Ma’an they knew nothing about the incident.
The incident comes hours after Israeli forces shot two young Palestinians, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition in the West Bank.
According to Ma’an news agency, 21-year-old Mohammed Imad Jawwabra was shot in the chest during clashes in al-Arrub refugee camp north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli army spokeswoman said a “violent riot of 200 Palestinians” was taking place in the area, claiming that the armed soldiers were “defending themselves.”
Israeli troops also shot and seriously injured a young Palestinian man near the southern West Bank town of Khursa, Israeli media reported. The news site Ynet said the Palestinian was taken to an Israeli hospital.
Clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Beit Furik village east of Nablus, in the town of Tuqu near Bethlehem and in Beit Ummar in northern Hebron. Local sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces shot live fire, stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters near the Beit Furik school, leaving two Palestinians injured.
Medics of the Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an that two injured, Ali Naji Haneni and Moaed Khataya, both 16, were taken to the Rafeda Hospital for treatment where their wounds were described as light to moderate.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out multiple predawn raids across the West Bank, Jerusalem and Occupied Palestine and detained dozens of young Palestinian men. Around 7,000 Palestinians, including hundreds who have been charged with nothing, are currently being held in Israeli prisons. More than 2,000 of them were arrested by Israeli forces over this summer amid heavy tensions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Tensions have been running high in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where in recent weeks Israeli forces have shot and killed four Palestinians suspected of being involved in attacks against Israelis.
Israeli forces spokesman Micky Rosenfeld wrote on Twitter on Friday that at least 200 Palestinians have been arrested over the past two weeks in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities have recently allowed Zionist settlers to take over homes in Palestinian neighborhoods both in annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem while ignoring Palestinian residents, and have generally looked the other way at rising violence by Zionist settlers against Palestinians across the city.
Palestinians have been further provoked by the Israeli authorities’ decision to hold a vote on splitting the al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third holiest site, despite the existence of a Jewish prayer area at the Western Wall immediately next to the shrine.
Israeli forces have long restricted Palestinians’ access to the al-Aqsa compound based on age and gender, but have further prevented Muslim worshipers from entering the mosque while facilitating entrance for Zionist extremists.
Meanwhile, in northern Occupied Palestine, five Palestinians with Israeli citizenship were arrested by Israeli forces in the town of Kafr Kana, a day after another 24 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, including 10 minors, appeared in court on charges of rioting.
Protests have erupted in northern Occupied Palestine since Israeli forces on Saturday shot dead 22-year-old Kheir Hamdan during an attempted arrest. Israeli police claimed the officers fired warning shots before aiming directly at Hamdan when “their lives were threatened.” However, CCTV footage of the shooting show Hamdan was shot dead in cold blood.
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who account for about 20 percent of the population in Occupied Palestine, are the descendants of Palestinian who remained on their land when the Zionist state was established in 1948. The majority of Palestinians were killed, expelled from their homes, or detained in work camps.
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship complain of routine discrimination, particularly in housing, land access and employment, and anger has risen in recent months over Israel’s assault on Gaza that left nearly 2,200 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, dead.
More than 700 Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories were arrested in protests across the country against the war on Gaza.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the East Jerusalem in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In September 2000, a visit to the site by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the “Second Intifada,” a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.