A 16-year-old Palestinian died on Monday, nearly two weeks after he was allegedly shot in the head by Israeli forces in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The ministry announced the death of Montessor Mohamed Theib Shawa, 16, from wounds “two weeks earlier from occupation (Israeli) bullets in Balata camp” in Nablus in the northern West Bank.
The statement said that “the bullet entered his head.”
Medical sources at Nablus’s Rafidia Hospital said Shawa was shot on 8 February.
The Israeli army said in a statement that “on the evening of 8 February … armed gunmen opened fire on soldiers” who were securing Jewish worshipers at Joseph’s Tomb, a religious site near the Balata refugee camp.
The Israeli statement said the force “responded to live shelling”, without elaborating whether one person had been killed.
Nablus has seen frequent clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in recent months.
Palestinian youths throw stones at army vehicles during a military operation by the Israeli army to arrest wanted men from the Balata camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, August 17, 2022. (JAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP)
Orthodox Israelis visit Joseph’s Tomb on a monthly basis, if not more often, and while the IDF enters Nablus in advance to secure the area for the arrival of pilgrims, the pilgrims almost always clash violently with Palestinian locals. Are.
The shrine, which is believed to be the final resting place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, is located inside Area A of the West Bank, which is officially under the control of the full Palestinian Authority, although Israeli forces regularly conduct raids despite Palestinian protests. enters.
The IDF prohibits Israeli citizens from entering Area A without prior authorization, and some criticize the monthly invasions as unnecessary provocations that put Israeli soldiers at risk.
The recent incident came at a time of rising violence in the region, as the Israeli army ramped up an anti-terrorist offensive in the West Bank that has led to more than 2,500 arrests, killed 171 Palestinians in 2022, and another 49 since. . At the beginning of the year
Many of them were killed in carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, although some were non-involved civilians.
The operation was launched to deal with a series of attacks that killed 31 people in Israel in 2022, and 11 more since the beginning of this year.
