QABATYA: Israeli troops shot dead a 22-year-old Palestinian early yesterday during a raid near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian medics and security officials said.
Ahmad Tazazaa was shot dead in Qabatya after Israeli soldiers entered the town to carry out an arrest operation, Palestinian officials said.
Residents threw stones at them, prompting the soldiers to open fire, hitting Tazazaa in the chest, medical sources said.
The Israeli military said four people were arrested in the town, and could only say it was investigating reports someone had been killed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people attended Tazazaa’s funeral in Jenin, accompanying the body from the morgue back to Qabatya where he was buried.
Residents said Tazazaa was a member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, but there was no immediate official confirmation.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights slammed the shooting, saying it “further proves the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in disregard for the civilians’ lives.”
The non-governmental group called upon the “international community to take immediate and effective actions to put an end to such crimes.”
Israel’s army also arrested three senior members of the Islamist Hamas movement overnight, Palestinian security sources said yesterday, in the second such arrest operation this week.
The three men — Jamal Tawil, Hussein Abu Kwayk and Faraj Romana — were arrested in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
All of them are senior West Bank members of Hamas, the movement which governs the Gaza Strip.
Afp
