Ramallah: Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian youth near Madama Bridge in the village of Bourine near Nablus on Saturday evening. The youth had been involved in clashes with Israeli colonists from the Yitzhar colony.
Sources at Rafidyah Hospital officially declared Ahmad Ebrahim Al Najar, 19, dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Hospital sources said Al Najar died of a bullet wound to the neck.
Sources in Nablus told Gulf News that clashes broke out between Palestinians from Bourine and other surrounding villages and the colonists of Yitzhar in the area, which has seen several such confrontations in recent years.
The sources claimed that Israeli troops set up an ambush near the scene of the clashes and showed little hesitatation to intervene, pointing their rifles at the Palestinians, shooting Al Najar and seriously wounding another 20-year-old, Mohammad Raed Asous.
The sources said that the colonists of Yitzhar could be classified as the worst among all the colonists in the West Bank. They highlighted that there had been clashes reported on a daily basis between colonists and the Palestinians seeking to defend themselves, their houses and their properties.
The sources said that the Israeli military usually acts with the motive of forcing Palestinian residents to give in without resistance when attacked by colonists.
The Israeli troops usually chose a target for killing to discourage Palestinian resistance, the sources said, adding that such tactics only serve to strengthen the Palestinian resolve to oppose the colonies and made residents more determined to defend their land.
The sources said that the Israeli troops didn’t hand over Al Najar’s body until the Palestinian officials of the Palestinian-Israeli security coordination liaison team personally received it and handed it to Al Najar’s family in Bourine.
The sources said that after the shooting, Israeli troops rained tear gas on Al Najar’s village, forcing several villagers, including women, to be hospitalised.
Tens of vengeful colonists of Beit Al later gathered on the Nablus-Ramallah main street and attacked vehicles owned by Palestinians. Several Palestinians were hospitalised and several Palestinian vehicles were destroyed. Israeli troops stood by impassively as the colonists hurled stones and rocks on passing Palestinian vehicles.