A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli army forces Tuesday morning in the occupied West Bank, making him the third Palestinian killed since the start of the new year.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Adam Ayyad, 15, was shot with live ammunition in the chest, and was pronounced dead early Tuesday morning at a hospital in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Ayyad was a resident of the Dheisheh refugee camp, the largest of three Palestinian refugee camps in the city of Bethlehem, and was shot during an Israeli military raid into the camp.
Locals from the camp told Mondoweiss that confrontations began shortly after 4 a.m., after Israeli special forces entered the camp in civilian vehicles, followed by a large number of military troops.
“They surrounded the home of Adnan Ajouri and detained him at around 4:30,” Hassan Manna, 32, a bakery owner and local activist from the camp told Mondoweiss. “After they arrested Ajouri, the soldiers started to retreat, and that is when the clashes started to intensify.”
Manna said that as Israeli forces began retreating from the camp, firing tear gas and sound bombs at local youth who threw rocks towards the soldiers, some of the young men began throwing Molotov cocktails towards the convoy of military jeeps.
The Israeli army and border police said that forces opened fire at a number of Palestinians who allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at them, adding that “suspects were hit.”
“The guys were trying to prevent the soldiers from taking Adnan. At the same time, as they were retreating, an Israeli sniper began firing live ammunition at the young men,” Manna said. Around the same time that Ayyad was shot in the chest, another young man, reportedly related to Ayyad, was shot in the shoulder.
Ayyad was rushed to the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital nearby where he was pronounced dead.
“The army never comes into the camp without killing someone as they leave,” Manna said. “It’s like a policy that they have. Anytime they come into the camp they kill someone. It doesn’t matter if they are a resistance fighter or a child throwing rocks, they have the order to kill.”
Ayyad is the third Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in 24 hours, and the first child to be killed in 2023. On Monday morning Israeli military forces invaded the town of Kufr Dan in Jenin and killed Foad Mahmoud Abed, 18, and Mohammad Samer Hosheyeh, 22. Three others were injured, with one critically wounded in the chest.
2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, with 173 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the course of last year. Of those killed in 2022, three were residents of the Dheisheh refugee camp.
‘I just wish that people will wake up’
Following the killing of Ayyad, a general strike was announced in the city of Bethlehem, with shops, offices and schools shutting down early in mourning.
As an outpouring of grief took over Palestinian social media on Tuesday, Palestinians circulated photos of a hand-written letter resting atop Ayyad’s body before his funeral.
The letter, titled “My last will and testament: may God grant me resolve, victory, and martyrdom” was written by Ayyad and was reportedly found by his family in his pockets after he was killed:
“There were a lot of things I wished I could do, but we live in a country where realizing your dreams is impossible, but I am very happy that God granted me one of my dreams, which is martyrdom.
I want to tell all of you that martyrdom isn’t simply death, martyrdom is an honor to yourself and to the entire world. Martyrdom is the end. It’s true that your life ends, but it ends with your happiness, and I want to send this message to the entire world, like [Ibrahim] al-Nabulsi said: ‘I just wish that the people will wake up.’
And now I’m telling you all, set your compass and point it towards the occupation, and I wish that God will accept me as a martyr, and that God will eradicate the collaborators. I hope that you will all forgive me and that you won’t forget me. I will not tell you goodbye, I will say we will meet again in heaven.
The living martyr,
Adam Ayyad”
According to Hassan Manna, Ayyad, who was an active member of the community in the camp, was deeply affected following the killing of his friend Omar Manna, 22, by Israeli forces on December 5. Omar was also shot and killed during a raid on the camp, in which Israeli forces arrested Omar’s brother.
Omar, Hassan’s cousin, worked in Hassan’s bakery along with Ayyad, who worked shifts from time to time to support his family. Ayyad was an only child.
“Adam was an only child, and his family comes from very modest means, so he used to work in the bakery to help them financially,” Manna told Mondoweiss.
“Adam was a happy kid, with an electric personality. I’m not saying he is special just because he is a martyr, but he really was a special person. You can ask anyone in the camp and they will tell you the same thing,” Manna said, going on to blame the Israeli occupation for, as he put it, forcing a child like Ayyad to feel the need to write a will declaring his wish to become a martyr.
“Every day of the year, 365 days, we are mourning martyrs in Palestine who were killed because they were defending their homes and their communities,” he said.
“My message to the world is the same as Adam’s message,” Manna told Mondoweiss. “I want people to wake up. To wake up and see the crime of the Israeli occupation, and to recognize that we have to resist in order to obtain our freedom.”
Looks like the extremist government, has started their killing spree already, wanting to prove to the world that their predictions were right, and that they will start their annexations, theft of lands, and the killing of children, women and men, until they are able to destroy a people, whose plight the world has ignored, and satisfy the greed.
America, UK, and the EU, have funded the most vicious master plan in world history. The seizing of lands, the inhumane treatment of a people who were thriving before evil set in, and the perishing of those people, the main intent of the occupier. ALL with the blessings of democratic nations, that are outraged that people around the world suffer without freedom and basic rights, while they support the longest occupation, and most cruel treatment of people who have none, and have to endure the pain and suffering inflicted on them.
The nazis would have been impressed.
How Israeli soldiers behave on patrol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxJd88xkBU
“Israeli Soldier’s Explosive Tell-All: “Palestinians are Right to Resist” ” – yes, it’s Abby Martin interviewing an Israeli soldier ( please hold all ad-hominem attacks ) and it’s a few years old, but the interviewee has some interesting comments. It’s 27 minutes long, but if you’re short on time watch minutes 12-15. They will find ways to execute people.
I’m not in any way religious.
However, my advice to any Israeli that has ever served in the military, government, or Settlements and carried out “business” in the West Bank or Gaza, is to pray to whatever gods you believe in.
When, not if, Apartheid Israel either becomes Two States, a Bi-national State,or a true Single State Democracy for all, pray that those negotiations involve a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission where perpetrators of institutionalized state-sponsored violence can give testimony and request amnesty for their actions and crimes.
Forget the status of Al-Aqsa, or the Golan Heights, or East Jerusalem, of the Jordan River Valley, or the Right of Return, or the status of the illegal Settlements. If they don’t prioritize and realize such a Commission in future negotiations or settlements, every single IDF unit, sniper, soldier, officer, commander, general, defense chief, Shin Bet agent, prime minister, settler, and office assistant will be hunted down wherever they flee to on the face of the earth and dragged back to Israel/Palestine or The Hague to stand trial for their involvement, no matter how small, and for generations to come. Just like the Nazis.
More than 70 years after the end of WW2, Nazis were still being hunted down across the planet and extradited to stand trial for their crimes and complicity.
So pray. Pray that you are already very old and aren’t expecting to outlive the justice that is coming to you, pray that the number one priority in the inevitable end to Israeli Apartheid is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or pray that the family, friends, and future leaders of the millions of victims of Israeli Apartheid show mercy and don’t hunt you down for generations to come.
Sheik Yassein’s plan, a stand down of aggressive resisting to allow matters to settle out, seems especially reasonable to consider as hardline Zionism is being examined by so many supporters of Israel. I doubt the founder of Hamas was suggesting stopping resisting and merely doing nothing. Especially reasonable now that one state from the river to the sea, with equality under law, is so logical as the end game.
A young man pocketing a suicide note chose to violently confront armed soldiers with Molotov cocktails – the outcome is no surprise.
And so long as 15 year-olds are encouraged and lionized by activists, their community and Mondo-like supporters, more of the same will follow.