Relatives and friends react after Israeli forces killed Palestinian Younes Tayeh during clashes in a raid in Al-Faraa refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 7, 2022, REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
Ramallah, September 7 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have killed a young Palestinian man during a raid on the northern occupied West Bank governorate of Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as 20-year-old Younis Ghassan Tayeh, and said he had been killed after being shot in the chest on Wednesday in the al-Faraa refugee camp, a few kilometers south of Tubas city.
Israeli forces had raided the refugee camp at 6:00 am (03:00GMT) in the latest of what have become daily incursions by the army across the occupied West Bank. Tayeh’s uncle, Mohammed Hassan Tayeh said that the shooting was unprovoked, and that his nephew had been “in an open area, exposed to the soldiers” when he was shot by a sniper.
“Younis was at home. He heard that they raided his uncle’s house, so he went down with a group of young people to see,” Mohammed told Al Jazeera, who explained that he was approximately 100 metres (328 feet) away when his nephew was shot. “There were light confrontations, rocks being thrown,” Mohammed added. “A sniper in one of the homes targeted him with a bullet to the neck and one to the chest.”
“Everyone is a target, since the occupation kills unarmed human beings, who do not pose any kind of threat.” An Israeli army statement said that Palestinians had thrown an improvised explosive device and fired at soldiers.
Tayeh’s killing was announced about an hour after the army entered, while at least two other men from Tubas were arrested and their homes raided. Khaled Mansour, a local political activist and resident of al-Fa’ra refugee camp, told Al Jazeera there were “no armed confrontations during the raid.” “The army came with large forces and raided several homes in search of “wanted” persons,” he said.
A day-long strike in protest at the killing was called on Wednesday by local political parties. At least 21 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli army overnight on Wednesday, including from Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Jerusalem, according to prisoners groups.
On August 19, during a raid on Tubas, Israeli forces shot and killed a 58-year-old Palestinian man, Salah Tawfiq Sawafta, as he was returning home from dawn prayers at the mosque near his home.
Israel’s 55-year-long military rule over the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the blockaded Gaza Strip, where some five million Palestinians live, has been described as the longest occupation in modern history. Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians face land theft, forcible transfer, sweeping movement restrictions, denial of residency rights, arbitrary imprisonment and daily killings, among other issues.
Recent reports by local and international human rights groups have accused Israel of carrying out apartheid and persecution against the Palestinian people as a whole and called for a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel as well as targeted sanctions of officials, including asset freezes and travel bans.
Israeli forces have carried out more than 2,200 raids and arrest operations in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Israeli military has defended the raids, and arrests, with the Israeli army’s Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi, saying on Monday that “hundreds of attacks” had been prevented.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that Israeli forces have killed more than 140 Palestinians in the 1967-occupied territories so far in 2022, including 49 people killed during Israel’s recent three-day offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, more than 6,960 Palestinians have been wounded in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli army in the same time period, according to OCHA. Nineteen people have also been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank in 2022.
