Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teenagers on Sunday in separate incidents in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Yamen Khanafseh on Sunday night in the Jerusalem area town of Abu Dis.
DCIP said that “after shooting Yamen, Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters toward an ambulance and prevented it from reaching him,” adding that there were no confrontations in the area at the time that the boy was shot.
Israeli army forces said in a statement that “Israeli soldiers operating in the village of Abu Dis identified two suspects throwing firebombs at one of the army positions in the area. Yamin Jaffal was wounded by Israeli fire and later succumbed to his wounds. The second suspect fled the scene.”
“Israeli forces routinely unlawfully kill Palestinian children with impunity, using excessive force and unjustified intentional lethal force,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “If a child is suspected of committing a criminal act, they should be apprehended in accordance with international standards and afforded due process of law.”
According to DCIP, Israeli forces seized Khanafseh’s body after killing him, and that it was not clear if or when he would be returned to his family.
“While it is unclear if Israeli authorities will continue to withhold Yamen’s body from his family, Israeli authorities continue to implement a policy of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies in violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” DCIP said in a statement.
On Sunday morning, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian teenager, 19-year-old Karim Jamal al-Qawasmi, during an alleged stabbing attack in the Old City in East Jerusalem.
Israeli police claimed that al-Qawasmi, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tur, “came up to the police officers with a knife and attacked one of them in the city’s Muslim Quarter at around 4:30 a.m,” the Times of Israel reported.
The police officers opened fire and shot al-Qawasmi, who was declared dead at the scene.
Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians over the past week, and 16 Palestinians since the start of 2022. Of the 16 Palestinians killed, three were children.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that 17 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the year.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongues has muttered perversity – Isaiah 59:3
The devil and his demons want everyone to die, kill, steal and destroy – John 8:44
If no confrontations were happening, the firebomb claimed would have been in hand. No cameras?