Occupied West Bank - A hospitalised Palestinian teen said Monday he was shot in his thighs by Israeli occupation soldiers while he was handcuffed and blindfolded - the latest in what a leading rights group portrayed as a series of unjustified shootings of Palestinians by occupation regime soldiers.
Osama Hajahjeh, 16, said he was trying to run from occupation soldiers when he was shot Thursday. He said the incident began after a funeral for a school teacher in his village of Tekoa, who had been hit by a car driven by an Israeli while walking at a busy intersection.
I was shot in my right leg. Then I tried to run, and I was shot in my left leg and fell on the ground
Hajahjeh said school was let out early for students to attend the funeral. After the burial, he said he was tackled by an occupation soldier who jumped out of an olive grove and forced him to the ground. He said his hands were cuffed and his eyes covered with a cloth blindfold.
After the arrest, he said he could hear Palestinian youths shouting at the occupation soldiers, while soldiers yelled back in Arabic and Hebrew.
“I got confused” and stood up, he said. “Immediately, I was shot in my right leg. Then I tried to run, and I was shot in my left leg and fell on the ground,” he said, speaking from his hospital bed in the West Bank town of Beit Jala south of occupied Jerusalem.
Doctors said he is in stable condition.
A photo captured by a local photographer shows soldiers appearing to pursue a fleeing Hajahjeh with his eyes covered and hands tied behind his back.
The shooting set off a chaotic scene. Regime soldiers and Palestinians shouted at each other as the teen lay on the ground. One soldier took off the teen’s belt and used it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
Amateur video shows a masked regime soldier screaming and pointing a pistol at a group of anguished Palestinians as the teen lies on the ground. Later, a soldier scuffles with residents as another fires into the air.
