IOF Murder Another Palestinian Youth in Attack on West Bank Village

By Staff, Agencies

“Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] troops have fatally shot another Palestinian youth during an attack on a village located west of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.

According to Palestinian media, 20-year-old Zakaria Muhammad Zakaria al-Zaoul was seriously injured after IOF’s live bullet hit him in the head during a Monday evening raid on Husan village.

The head of the village council was quoted as saying that the Palestinian youth was hit after the entity’s forces attacked the village, firing live bullets as well as tear gas and sound bombs. After being injured by a headshot, Zakaria was taken to hospital for treatment, where he was later pronounced dead.

Palestinian media also reported that two other young men were wounded by IOF’s bullets during the raid. One of them was hit in the neck and the other in the stomach, while a third youth was arrested, whose identity has not been identified yet.

The new “Israeli” crime came after the regime’s forces killed at least five Palestinians and wounded dozens of others in heavy clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

IOF troops were backed by Apache helicopters in their raid on Jenin. The firing of missiles during the raid has been unprecedented in the past two decades.

According to Palestinian Authority [PA] Health Ministry officials, at least 66 Palestinians were wounded with live ammunition, several of whom in serious and critical condition, during the attack.

Tensions have been running high in the occupied West Bank over the past year, with the IOF conducting violent raids under the pretext of detaining what it calls wanted Palestinians.

As a result of these attacks, nearly 160 Palestinians, including 28 children, have lost their lives and many others have been kidnapped so far this year.

The entity’s forces have been also conducting near-nightly raids and killings in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.

An official with the Palestine Liberation Organization has condemned the entity’s latest practices as "an open war" waged on Palestinians.