ISRAELI soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager on Monday near a checkpoint in the West Bank after he reportedly threw rocks at drivers.
WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, identified the teen as 17-year-old Iman Jamil Dweikat, a resident of Beita.
“The martyrdom of the youth Dweikat proves that we made the right decision (in going to) the United Nations Security Council to end the occupation and stop the suffering of the unarmed Palestinian people,” WAFA quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying. Arab U.N. delegations met on Monday to discuss a Palestinian plan to give Israel a two-year deadline to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. A final draft resolution on the plan is due to be submitted to the Security Council in the next few days, despite Israeli and U.S. opposition.
The teenager was killed south of the village of Nablus in the West Bank near the Tappuah checkpoint, which Palestinians call Zaatara, according to Palestinian news website Maan News.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said that the Israeli military personnel were patrolling the area when they encountered youths throwing stones at a road near the checkpoint. After the teenagers ignored orders to stop, the soldiers responded with direct fire.
Local sources told Maan that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the teenager and another Palestinian youth, 19-year-old Nael Thiab. Thiab was reportedly injured by gunfire and evacuated to a hospital in Nablus, Maan said.
Palestinian security sources confirmed to local media that the Israeli liaison department had notified the Palestinian Authority that a youth had been killed and that his body was with the Israeli army.
Dweikat is the 50th Palestinian killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank this year, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed by the military in 2014 to 2,335, a statistic that includes deaths from Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip this summer, according to Maan.
Israeli military law categorizes stone-throwing as a serious offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. There is a 99 percent conviction rate for Palestinians accused of throwing stones, and Israel authorities have arrested or detained more than 8,000 Palestinian minors since 2000 — mostly for alleged stone-throwing, according to Save the Children. (Renee Lewis – Al Jazeera with with Reuters)
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