An Israeli armoured vehicle drives along a devastated street in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on September 4, 2024, during an ongoing Israeli military raid. (Photo by AFP)
Jenin, September 6 (RHC)-- A 16-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by an Israeli sniper in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, was just looking out of her home window, her father says, highlighting a troubling trend of Israeli snipers targeting civilians in the region.
The father of Lujain Osama Musleh, in his latest remarks on Wednesday, revealed that Israeli forces had encircled the neighboring house when his daughter was tragically shot in the forehead after she pulled back the curtain to glance outside.
“She didn’t go to the roof, she didn’t hurl a stone, and she wasn’t carrying a weapon,” Osama Musleh said, adding that “she was 16 years old and the only thing she did was look from the window and the soldier saw her and shot her. One bullet that targeted her forehead.”
Lujain was shot on Tuesday in the town of Kafr Dan in Jenin, and medical access to her was denied for over half an hour, leaving her to bleed to death, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.
On the same day, another teenager named Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by Israeli snipers in the Tulkarm refugee camp while his father was struck by live rounds in the waist as they were going to a mosque together.
Local residents report that Israeli snipers are positioned throughout the area, indiscriminately targeting Palestinian civilians and increasingly targeting children.
Medical workers at a hospital near the besieged city of Jenin told Al Jazeera that they are keeping the emergency room windows closed to safeguard the facility against potential sniper fire targeting it.
Hundreds of Israeli troops, backed by helicopters and drones, have been operating in Jenin Tulkarm and Tubas as well as other areas of the West Bank for the past week as part of a large-scale Israeli military operation.
The Jenin governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, reported that Israeli forces have conducted 12 significant incursions into the city since the onset of the Gaza war nearly a year ago, describing the situation as "the most severe, the most painful and oppressive."
At least 39 Palestinians have been killed and over 130 wounded in the raids across the West Bank, which started on August 28th.
Since the onset of the Gaza conflict nearly 11 months ago, Palestinian Health Ministry figures reveal that more than 680 have been killed, including 148 children, and thousands of Palestinians have been detained in raids in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
