Israeli forces kill disabled Palestinian

Israeli occupation forces shot dead a 20-year-old Palestinian man with learning disabilities, medical and security sources said, according to BBC. 

Witnesses said the brutal killing took place early Wednesday during an arrest raid by Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The victim, identified as Mujahid al-Simadi, had wandered out into the streets wielding a toy gun. He was among a number of stone-throwing children who surrounded a house occupied by Israeli troops.

The soldiers then opened fire from the house and al-Simadi was hit in the chest and died instantly.

The Israeli army confirmed the killing, claiming that the soldiers saw a “suspect armed with a weapon who was threatening them".

On Monday, Israeli occupation forces shot dead a 25-year-old women in the Gaza Strip.

Three months ago, a 12-year-old boy was killed in the Jenin refugee camp during a stone-throwing protest.

Al-Simadi’s death brings the overall death toll in the occupied territories since the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to 4,955, according to an AFP count. The majority have been Palestinians.

Source: aljazeera.com

Disabled Palestinian killed in raid

 

Israeli occupation forces have killed a Palestinian with mental health problems and detained up to 20 people in the West Bank on the fourth anniversary of the current intifada or uprising.

 

Palestinians have been forced out of their homes

 

Salah Ailalu, 47, was hit in the stomach on Tuesday by troops who saw him outside after they had declared a curfew in Jenin, sources said.

The curfew was imposed on Monday as part of a raid by Israeli occupation forces which residents described as the biggest in almost a year.

Hundreds of troops had commandeered rooftops and were conducting house-to-house searches.

Aljazeera's correspondent said troops also forced some Palestinians out of their homes.

The latest death took the total number of people reported killed since the start of the intifada to 4345, comprising 3326 Palestinians and 948 Israelis.

Re-evaluation

Commenting on the anniversary of the intifada, Aljazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem said 82% of Palestinians killed were civilians, 308 had been assassinated by the occupation forces and 16% were under the age of 18.

Ariel Sharon's entry into al-Aqsa compound sparked the intifada

In addition, 7300 Palestinians are detained in Israeli prisons and 3500 Palestinian homes have been demolished, he said.

The correspondent said the inter-Palestinian situation was also deteriorating, with security getting worse and chaos spreading to many areas.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya called for a re-evaluation of what the intifada has achieved and the difficulties faced, Aljazeera's correspondent in Ram Allah said.

The intifada broke out exactly four years ago, after then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon entered al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, triggering clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

Source: english.aljazeera.net

Disabled man dies in Israeli raid

 

Israeli troops have shot dead a mentally ill Palestinian during a raid in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

The man's death came as Palestinians prepared to mark the fourth anniversary of their intifada against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

An Israeli military source said the man was climbing a fence surrounding an army outpost and refused calls to stop.

The operation is said to be the biggest in Jenin for months with hundreds of Israeli troops searching houses.

An Israeli military source said soldiers were looking for militants and explosives in the Jenin refugee camp.

Israeli officers' criticism

Medics said Saleh Bilalu, who is known to have a history of mental illness, died of a bullet wound to the chest.

Israeli military sources had earlier told Israel radio that he had been climbing up a house occupied by troops who shot him in the legs and he had been killed by the fall.

Israel's policies in the occupied territories have came under fire from four senior members of an elite Israeli air force unit who describe the military's action as "immoral".

In a letter published by Israeli newspapers on Tuesday, the four expressed special concern about the demolition of Palestinians' houses, but included other examples of alleged collective punishment of the Palestinian population.

The letter said they wanted to spark debate about army operations, and distanced themselves from so-called refuseniks - those Israelis who refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

'My disabled brother was buried alive'

 

STANDING on a jagged pile of debris, Ahmed Fayed told the British rescue worker that the heap of blasted concrete had once been his home. His wheelchair-bound brother, he explained, could not escape the Israeli bulldozers and lay entombed beneath their feet.

Minutes before seeing the devastated heart of Jenin refugee camp - where Israeli tanks, bulldozers and attack helicopters had torn a path of destruction through densely-packed homes - the 12-strong team of British rescue workers had received a briefing on the dangers of Palestinian booby traps that still litter the camp.

A Red Cross worker told the Britons that pipe bombs, gas cylinders packed with explosives, rudimentary hand grenades and improvised mortars had been placed in every nook and cranny of the camp to fight the Israeli soldiers.

The experience of John Holland and the other members of Rescue and Preparedness in Disasters (Rapid), a British charity, encapsulated the central question that United Nations investigators will be seeking to answer: did the Israeli army massacre innocent civilians in the camp or did it fight a fierce battle against Palestinian militants?

Mr Fayed, 36, said that his home, inhabited by seven children and five adults, had been singled out for demolition. As an Israeli bulldozer began its work, everyone in the family managed to escape except for Mr Fayed's disabled brother, Jamal, 38.

"We shouted to the Israeli soldiers that there was a handicapped one," said Mr Fayed. "We said, 'Give us a chance to carry him out'. But they shouted, 'We will kill you all'."

The bulldozer demolished the house with Jamal Fayed still inside, adding a disabled civilian to the unknown toll of Palestinian dead, said Mr Fayed.

The Israeli army has furiously rejected any suggestion that it targeted the innocent. It said militant Palestinian fighters had transformed the camp into a "fortress of terror".

The battle to capture its winding alleyways cost the lives of 23 soldiers, the highest toll since the onset of the Israeli operation against Palestinian controlled areas of the West Bank. Thirteen were killed in a single ambush.

With hundreds of Palestinian fighters defending the streets house by house, the Israeli army insists that it had no option but to use armoured vehicles to destroy their hideouts.

According to the Israelis, the tanks and bulldozers were restricted to destroying those buildings being used by fighters, and then only after civilians had been given a chance to escape.

The two square miles of Jenin camp were inhabited by at least 13,500 people, 43 per cent of them under the age of 18. One survivor after another recalled how no warning was given to evacuate houses before the tanks and bulldozers moved in.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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