Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp on Monday night, bringing the death toll of children killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year to 18.
Dirar al-Kafrayni, 17, was shot and killed in the back by an Israeli sniper at around 10:35 pm on Monday August 1, according to Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP). The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported al-Kafrayni’s age to be 17, while DCIP reported that he was 16.
According to DCIP, an Israeli sniper deployed on top of a residential building in the refugee camp shot al-Kafrayni from a distance of approximately 295 feet. The bullet entered through his back right shoulder and expanded in his body, causing “severe internal bleeding,” DCIP said.
He was pronounced dead shortly before 11:00 pm. The ministry of health reported that a second Palestinian was wounded with live ammunition and was in moderate condition.
Al-Kafrayni was shot during a large-scale Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp, during which Israeli forces arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Al-Saadi’s son-in-law Ashraf al-Jada was also arrested during the operation.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces violently arrested al-Saadi after surrounding his home in the refugee camp. Al-Saadi’s wife, Nawal, was reportedly injured during the arrest and evacuated to a hospital for treatment. Videos and photos after the raid showed pools of blood on the floor of the al-Saadi family’s home.
The Israeli raid on the camp sparked a gun battle between Islamic Jihad fighters and the Israeli army. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that al-Kafrayni belonged to the group, and that following the arrest of al-Saadi, the group’s fighters were declaring a state of alert.
Al-Saadi is a former political prisoner and the most senior member of the Islamic Jihad movement in the occupied West Bank. He was recently released in 2020 following a two-year prison sentence. His last arrest in 2018 came after a five-year search by the Israeli military to locate him, Al Jazeera reported.
Two of al-Saadi’s sons were killed by the Israeli military during its large-scale and deadly invasion of the camp during the Second Intifada in 2002.
The Jenin refugee camp has been the target of dozens of large-scale raids by the Israeli military since the start of the year, in an attempt to suppress the growing armed resistance movement in the camp, of which the military wings of the Islamic Jihad and Fatah movements are the most active.
On May 11, Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al jazeera reporter, while she was covering a raid on the camp.
Since the start of the year 80 Palestinians have been killed by, or died as the result of Israeli military and settler violence, according to Mondoweiss documentation. The vast majority of those killed were shot during night raids, like the one on the Jenin refugee camp on Monday.
Of the Palestinians killed in 2022, at least seven were killed during raids on the Jenin refugee camp.
I wonder if that sniper is the same one who killed Shireen Abu Akleh. Both murders were in Jenin and in both cases an excellent marksman was responsible.