Israeli forces kill 13-year-old in West Bank

clashes
Abbas accuses Israel of escalating tensions a day after Israeli PM orders new measures including
speedier demolition of attacker's homes

A clash on Sunday night between Palestinians and Israeli security forces near Bat Eal settlement and
Ramallah (Shadi Hatem/MEE)

Graeme Baker-Monday 5 October 2015

A 13-year-old Palestinian has been killed by Israeli gunfire during clashes in the occupied West Bank,
the second Palestinian teenager to die in 24 hours.
The boy, named as Abdel Rahman Abdullah, was killed by a gunshot to the chest near a Bethlehem
refugee camp on Monday as violence spiked in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Witnesses told Middle East Eye that the child was walking to the shop during the clashes when he was
shot. Doctors at the local hospital said that Abdel Raham Abdullah arrived in critical condition and

died soon after. Another young man was reportedly shot in the thigh, and is in moderate condition.
Protests have since broken out in the refugee camp, with several hundred people taking to the
streets, shouting slogans including: "We weren't born for humiliation, we were born to hold guns."
Young men also throw stones at Israeli security forces.

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The Fatah movement has also called for a comprehensive city-wide strike to take place on Tuesday in
protest against recent violence.

2nd killing in 24 hours

The 13-year-old is the second Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers over the past 24 hours. Huzeifa
Othman Suleiman, 18, was killed on Sunday during clashes in Tulkarem, according to medics and
Palestinian police sources.
The Anadolu news agency reported Hamas as confirming that Suleiman was an activist linked to the
group. The Israeli military said its forces had clashed with up to 200 youths in Tulkarem who belonged
to Hamas. "They [army] used riot dispersal means. They fired rounds towards three rioters that were
throwing firebombs and confirmed hits," said an Israel Army spokesperson.
The Red Crescent organisation on Monday reported 456 Palestinians injured over the last two days
alone by Israeli live fire and rubber bullets.
The violence mounted over the weekend after the deaths of two Israelis in Jerusalem's Old City,
prompting Israel to close the area to non-resident Palestinians and step up their show of force.
Faiz Abu Rmeleh, a photographer who lives in the Old City, told Middle East Eye that the area's streets
were deserted on Monday morning as a result of the Israeli security measures.
"No one can get in," he said. "Movement is very difficult. Some small streets have three big Israeli
checkpoints and al-Aqsa mosque is blocked to anyone other than women and men over 50 years old.

Shops are closed and anyone wanting to come from outside who is not a resident is not allowed. This
means no one can work, children cannot get to their schools."
"Al-Wad street to al-Aqsa is closed off. Damascus Gate is heavily patrolled. I cannot move freely. They
have stopped our lives."
Clashes were also reported in the Shuafat area of north-east Jerusalem. Three people were injured,
Palestinian sources told MEE.

Deserte
d streets in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighbourhood (MEE)

The mainly Palestinian area was home to Mohammed Abu Khader, a 17-year-old burnt alive by ultraright wing settlers last year. His death was believed to have been carried out in response to the killing
of three Israeli settler teenagers in the West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday accused Israel of escalating tensions in his first
reaction since a recent spike in unrest.
"The Israeli side and its government have an interest in dragging things into a cycle of violence and
are trying through escalation at al-Aqsa (mosque compound) and settler attacks to escape their
political impasse and international isolation," said the statement from Abbas's office.
Abbas's comments come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was
"waging a fight to the death against Palestinian terror," and ordered tough new measures after the
killing of two Israelis in Jerusalem.

"These steps include, among others, speeded up demolition of terrorists' homes," he said in a video
address distributed by his office.
Netanyahu had convened his ministers of defence and internal security and top security officials
immediately after landing back in Israel on Sunday from delivering a speech to the UN General
Assembly.
He said he instructed them on steps "to prevent terror and deter and punish the attackers".
They included broader use of detention without trial for suspects, further reinforcement of security
forces in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and restraining orders keeping unspecified "inciters"
away from the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound, which he called by its Jewish name of Temple
Mount.
The Israeli ban in the Old City came hours after a 19-year-old Palestinian, Muhannad Halabi, attacked
an Israeli family as they walked in the Old City, killing the father, seriously wounding the mother and
lightly injuring their two-year-old child before stabbing another Israeli man to death. He then opened
fire at tourists and police before he was shot and killed by policemen.
Meanwhile, Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza on Monday after two rockets were fired from the Strip
towards Israel on Sunday evening, with one hitting an uninhabited area in southern Israel while
another exploded in the sky.
The first rocket hit an open space in Eshkol Regional Council, near the border, causing no damage.
Sirens did not go off since the rocket did not pose a threat.
No casualties were reported in either Gaza or southern Israel.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/18-year-old-killed-more-400-injured-west-bank663769487#sthash.Epg8Dhei.dpuf
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