Occupied Jerusalem: Three Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Israeli military and police said.
In the first incident, the military claimed two Palestinians were throwing rocks at passing vehicles near the West Bank city of Jenin and, when forces arrived at the scene, Palestinians opened fire at them.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two Palestinians as Nihad Waked and Fouad Waked, both 15 years old. They were from the same extended family in the West Bank village of Al Araka, near Jenin, but were not close relatives.
Later, at a West Bank checkpoint on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem, another Palestinian was shot dead. Again Israeli police claim the teenager tried to attack them, but no Israeli officers were wounded. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian as 17-year-old Naim Safi of Abadiya village near Bethlehem.
Also on Sunday, a watchdog group said the Israeli regime began building 1,800 new colonist homes in the West Bank in 2015.
Peace Now, an Israeli group that tracks colony construction, said most of the building has taken place in isolated colonies in areas of the West Bank that the Israeli regime would likely evacuate in the event of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The Israeli regime occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and built colonies there. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but nearly 600,000 Israeli colonists remain in occupied east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians say these areas belong to their future state, a position that has wide global support. They view Israeli colony construction as a major obstacle to resolving the conflict.
