Ramallah: An 18-year-old Palestinian youth was murdered by Israeli occupation forces after they raided his home at the Qalandiya refugee camp near Ramallah on Monday, according to his family.
Israeli sources say Mohammad Abu Latifah fell from the rooftop of his house, denying he was murdered.
Mohammad’s uncle Jamal said that his nephew attempted to flee the house after Israeli soldiers entered to ‘arrest’ him. They shot him multiple times in the legs until finally they subdued him on the roof of his family house.
He was then taken by the soldiers to the Qalandiyah crossing alive, according to the family, and soon later was handed the corpse of their son, whom they say was murdered by Israeli soldiers in ‘cold-blood’.
The family handed the body over to a Palestinian forsensics team who confirmed the youth was murdered.
“He bled to death as the soldiers did not allow him to receive any medical attention,” Jamal told Gulf News.
The family said that they did not know their son was wanted by the Israelis at all. Usually if someone is wanted they do not stay at their family homes where they would be an easy target.
Jamal also pointed out the incident was rare as usually Israeli soldiers encircle a house of someone who they want to arrest.
“They could have easily arrested him but the soldiers wanted to kill him,” he said.
Palestinian and Muslim factions condemned the murder and termed it an assassination. In seperate statements the groups urged the unternational community to prevent such illegal acts to take place.
The foreign ministry said that a full list of assassinations carried out by the Israelis would be presented to the International Criminal Court.
The ministry held the Israeli government responsible for Mohammad’s death labeling it and others like it a ‘crime’.
“There is racist incitement to murder Palestinians and specific instructions passed on to Israeli officers to allow such crimes,” the ministry said in a statement.
Mohammad was the third Palestinian martyr killed by Israeli forces in less than a week. One Palestinian youth was killed in Jenin and another near Hebron.
