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Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen days after using girl as human shield in Jenin

During a raid on Saturday morning, Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Amjad Walid Hussein Fayed, making him the 11th child to be killed by Israel since the start of the year.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a raid on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin over the weekend, just days after they used a Palestinian girl as a human shield in the city. 

During a raid on Saturday morning, Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Amjad Walid Hussein Fayed, making him the 11th child to be killed by Israel since the start of the year, according to Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP). 

According to DCIP, Fayed was shot in the chest around 2:30 am, after he and another Palestinian youth threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli army vehicles deployed in the city.

Israeli forces opened fire on Fayed, injuring him several times with live ammunition. Palestinian media reported that the other teen, aged 18, was also injured. He was transferred to the Ibn Sina Hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

“Israeli forces routinely unlawfully kill Palestinian children with impunity, using excessive force and unjustified intentional lethal force,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP, said in a statement. 

“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,” Abu Eqtaish said. 

Palestinian teenage girl used as human shield

Ahed Mohammad Rida Mereb (Photo: Courtesy of the Mereb family via Defense for Children International - Palestine)
Ahed Mohammad Rida Mereb (Photo: Courtesy of the Mereb family via Defense for Children International – Palestine)

Days before Fayed was killed, Israeli forces used a teenage Palestinian girl as a human shield during a military raid in Jenin. 

According to DCIP, during a raid on the morning of May 13th, Israeli soldiers forced 16-year-old Ahed Mohammad Rida Mereb, to stand in front of an Israeli military vehicle for two hours as the vehicle came under fire from Palestinian gunmen, while Israeli soldiers sat inside the vehicle. 

Israeli forces besieged Mereb’s home in the early morning around 6:00 am in order to arrest her older brother. After ordering Mereb, her parents, and younger brothers out of the house, Israeli forces engaged in a gun battle with her older brother who remained in the house. 

Two hours later, at around 8 am, Palestinian gunmen began shooting towards an Israeli military vehicle in the area. That’s when the soldiers ordered Mereb to get in front of the vehicle. 

“Bullets were being fired at the military vehicle from all directions,” Mereb recounted to DCIP.

“I was trembling and crying and shouting to the soldiers to remove me because the bullets were passing over my head, but one of them ordered me in Arabic through a small window in the military vehicle, ‘Stay where you are and don’t move. You’re a terrorist. Stand in your place until you say goodbye to your brother’,” she said. 

DCIP added that when Mereb tilted her head to the side in an effort to dodge the bullets, one of the Israeli soldiers ordered her to stand up straight. She was forced to stand in front of the vehicle for 2 hours before she ran to a nearby tree and collapsed on the ground. 

She was evacuated to the hospital where she was treated for intense mental stress and a severe lack of oxygen. 

“The use of civilians as human shields, wherein civilians are forced to directly assist military operations or used to shield armed forces or armed groups or objects from attack, is prohibited under international law. The practice is also prohibited under Israeli law based on a 2005 ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice,” DCIP said in a statement. 

DCIP added that since 2000, the group has documented at least 26 cases involving Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army, only one of which led to the conviction of two soldiers for “inappropriate behavior” and “overstepping authority.”

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Nazi caliber…

Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed him as a fighter and published posters of him armed. Where is the condemnation of the Palestinians for using child soldiers?