A child was killed and a Palestinian was wounded by Israeli gunfire north of Jerusalem
A Palestinian child from the town of Beit Duqo, northwest of Jerusalem, was martyred on Thursday morning after being shot by the Israeli army during a large-scale incursion carried out by the occupation forces in the town, which included confrontations, raids and arrests.
The Jerusalem Governorate said in a statement that the occupation forces shot the child Muhammad Murad Rayyan (17 years old) during the clashes, which led to his critical injury that led to his death, while another citizen was seriously injured. It added that the Israeli forces detained the body of the child after his martyrdom and prevented medical teams from reaching him.
According to the statement, the Israeli forces carried out an extensive raid and search campaign that affected a number of citizens' homes, and detained a number of young men and residents and subjected them to field investigations, before arresting the freed prisoner Muhammad Ali Daoud and withdrawing from the town.
Preventing the Wounded
In a related context, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that its crews received a report of a serious injury in the town, but the Israeli army prevented ambulances from reaching the injured man, stressing that field follow-up is still ongoing, without additional information about the nature of the injury or the number of detainees.
According to eyewitnesses, the occupying forces stormed the town in the early hours of the morning, leading to clashes during which Palestinian youths used stones, while Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters.
Escalation on the ground in the West Bank
The storming of Beit Duqo is part of a series of operations carried out by the Israeli army at dawn on Thursday in various areas of the West Bank, including the city of Nablus and the village of Merka in the Jenin governorate in the north, as part of an ongoing military campaign interspersed with arrests and almost daily confrontations.
Official Palestinian data indicate that since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2023, the army and settlers have escalated their attacks in the West Bank, resulting in the death of 1,148 Palestinians and the injury of about 11,750 others, in addition to the arrest of nearly 22,000.
The attacks include the demolition of homes and facilities, the vandalism of property, forced displacements, and settlement expansion in various areas, amid Palestinian warnings that these measures pave the way for the imposition of a new reality aimed at annexing the West Bank and ending the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state.
These developments are based on a historical context that extends since 1948, when Israel was established on Palestinian land after displacing at least 750,000 Palestinians, and later occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories and refuses to withdraw from them to this day.
350 Children in Israeli Prisons
On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, which falls tomorrow, Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education issued a statement in which it confirmed that about 350 children are languishing in the occupation prisons, in harsh conditions of detention that are contrary to all international laws and conventions, where they are subjected to systematic policies that include night detention, harsh interrogation, isolation, deprivation of education, in addition to medical negligence and ill-treatment.
The ministry published documented testimonies of child prisoners and students confirming that many of them were subjected to shocking conditions of detention, with some of them recounting being taken from their homes at night while handcuffed and blindfolded, while others spoke of being deprived of completing their education, and being held in environments that lack the most basic elements of human life, in addition to being subjected to psychological pressure and intimidation during interrogation.
The Ministry explained that these certificates reflect the extent of the violations to which students are exposed, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and all the norms that guarantee the right to education, protection and care, and confirms that the targeting of students is not an individual case, but a policy aimed at undermining their consciousness and future.
The Ministry reiterated its call on all international and human rights institutions, especially those concerned with children's rights and education, to shoulder their legal and moral responsibilities, and to work hard to stop these violations and hold the occupation accountable for them.
The Ministry also called for the immediate and urgent release of all prisoners and detainees, especially children and school students, and to guarantee their right to safely return to school and complete their educational journey.