RAMALLAH: The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that the Israeli army killed two people including a 15-year-old boy in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank.
“At dawn today, Tuesday, 15-year-old child Amjad Nassar Abu Awad was martyred by Israeli gunfire in the city of Ramallah,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Also at dawn today, 24-year-old young man Samer Bassam Zagharneh was martyred by Israeli gunfire near the town of Dhahiriya” in the southern West Bank, the ministry added.
The Israeli military told AFP it was “looking into” the two reported incidents.
Around 20 people, mostly young boys and teenagers, had gathered at a Ramallah hospital to mourn Abu Awad, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
In tears, the boys touched Abu Awad’s face in the white light of the hospital morgue.
Two Palestinian teenagers, aged 13 and 15, were killed last week in the West Bank towns of Al-Yamoun and Kafr Malik respectively.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that triggered the Gaza war.
Since then, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 946 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the health ministry.
Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to Israeli figures.
Israeli army kills two in West Bank, including one teen
https://arab.news/p8ezv
Israeli army kills two in West Bank, including one teen
- Palestinian health ministry says 15-year-old Amjad Nassar Abu Awad was killed by Israeli military gunfire in Ramallah
Gaza access: Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline
- The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set Jan. 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by the attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 23, the court held its first hearing in the case and gave Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan to grant access.
Since then, the court has granted several extensions to the Israeli authorities to develop their plan, but on Saturday, it set Jan. 4 as the final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist serves on the FPA board.
Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham accused Hamas of rearming during a visit to Israel on Sunday, and charged that the Palestinian group was also consolidating power in Gaza.
“My impression is that Hamas is not disarming, they are rearming,” Graham said in a video statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
“It’s my impression that they are trying to consolidate power (and) not give it up in Gaza.”
Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.
Hamas has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli “violations” of the ceasefire.
On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza.
