A Palestinian-American teenager was killed by Israeli soldiers in a West Bank Village on Friday, October 24, in the second fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager within a week.
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“I don't call that a clash -– little kids throwing rocks or pebbles against live ammunition,” the teenager's uncle, Hakeem Khalek, told The Times-Picayune on Saturday, October 25.
“This all happens overseas, where kids throw rocks at military jeeps. And of course the Israeli army returned fire (and) we're not talking rubber bullets.”
The Palestinian teenagers Orwah Hammad, 14, was shot in the head by the Israeli forces during clashes with protesters in the in the West Bank village of Silwad, near Ramallah on Friday.
Refuting the Israeli army's allegation that protesters were throwing Molotov cocktail at soldiers, Hammad's uncle stressed that they have thrown rocks only.
“They encountered a Palestinian man hurling a molotov cocktail... They opened fire and they confirmed a hit,” an Israeli army spokesman told Reuters.
After living in New Orleans for almost a year, the Palestinian-American teenager has returned with his siblings to live in West Bank.
“He wanted Orwah to learn the culture,” Khalek said about the boy's father.
“He really wanted the kids to be brought up in the culture our generation was brought up in.”
The killing of Hammad is the second in the West Bank where another Palestinian Bahaa Sameer Mousa Bader, 13, was killed by the Israeli troops last week.
In the same week, two Palestinian girls were hit by a car of Jewish settler in West Bank, leaving one of them, 5-years, dead.
Expressing its “deepest condolences” to the family of killed Palestinian teenager, the US called for “a speedy and transparent investigation.”
“We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement cited by Agence France Presse (AFP).
“Killing With Impunity”
Amid lack of accountability and skepticism about internal army investigations, Israeli soldiers have been widely accused of killing with “impunity”.
According to Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer at Defense for Children International-Palestine, “Orwah is the tenth Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces with live ammunition in the occupied West Bank in 2014.”
“Impunity is the norm for Israeli soldiers that commit violence against children as they consistently violate their own live-fire regulations and know that they will not be held accountable for their actions no matter what the result,” Parker told Mondoweiss.
“There is no justice or accountability for child victims,” the attorney added.
According to the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, more than 34 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces and settlers since mid-June, including 6 minors.
The killing of Hammad has sparked anger among his American community in New Orleans where a school that his relatives attend “plans to address his death with the roughly 240 students on Monday, October 27”.
“Absolutely, the sadness among faculty and staff spread to the upper grades,” Nabil Abukhader, the school's president said.
“We'll mention the nature of his death (and) at the same time in that moment of sorrow, that violence does not lead to any happy endings.”
Mourning the Palestinian teenager who would have turned 15 by November, his uncle said: “his life just got snuffed out from underneath him, for no apparent reason.”
“Where is the fairness in that? The kid hadn't begun to know his life yet. That's a sad situation for any kid, no matter what his culture, race or creed.”
Over the past weeks, tension has been high in Jerusalem where Jewish settlers have mounted their aggression on the holy site of Al-Aqsa mosque.
Beside frequent raids by the Israeli police on the holy site, hundreds of Jewish settlers broke into Al-Aqsa accompanied by Israeli officials over the past weeks.
The unrest was heightened by the threats of Israeli Public Security Minister to close the holy site to Muslim worshippers.
On October 18, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's vowed to undertake “legal measures” against desecrating Al-Aqsa mosque by Israelis.
