18-year-old Palestinian killed by Israeli forces near Bethlehem

Bethlehem (QNN)- A Palestinian youth was killed on Wednesday afternoon by Israeli occupation gunfire in the Al-Arroub refugee camp, near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that 18-year-old Osama Adawi, a resident of the al-Arroub refugee camp, was shot in the abdomen by several Israeli bullets during confrontations in the camp and later died of his wounds at hospital.

Another youth was moderately injured during the confrontations in the camp and moved to hospital.

The youths shot and injured, including Adawi, were targeted during confrontations erupted between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in protest to the ongoing Israeli siege of the Shuafat refugee camp.

For five consecutive days, residents of occupied Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, located two kilometers from the Old City, have been under Israeli siege, with some unable to leave to receive critical health treatments and many basic supplies running low, as Israeli forces enforce a strict blockade.

The Israeli forces imposed the siege after an Israeli occupation soldier was killed on Saturday by a man who approached a checkpoint leading to the camp and opened fire. Israeli forces claimed that the suspect, who is still at large, is a 22-year-old Palestinian resident of Shuafat. The Israeli forces reportedly claim the suspect is hiding in the area of the Shuafat refugee camp.

At least ten Palestinians, including the suspect’s brother, have been arrested following the alleged shooting operation. On the night of the operation, the Israeli forces raided the suspect family home in the Shuafat refugee camp and took in his father and mother for questioning. They have been released since.

Israeli forces have also closed all entrances to the town of Anata, and the suburb of al-Salam, northeast of East Jerusalem.

On Tuesday night, residents of Shuafat camp declared civil disobedience against the Israeli occupation in protest of the ongoing siege of the camp and the neighboring town of Anata.

Heading calls raised by the Lion’s Den, a group of Palestinian resistance fighters that has emerged in recent months, Palestinians in several cities and villages across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem observed today a one-day general strike in solidarity with residents of the Shuafat refugee camp.

Schools and shops closed across the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem, including in the Old City.

Some protestors also blocked roads and burned tires in protest against the blockade.

Shawan Jabarin, the chair of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, described the lockdown of the camp as “collective punishment” in which Israeli authorities “feel they are immune from accountability”.

“The life of a Palestinian has no sanctity to them, as well as their livelihoods and dignity. This is embedded in the [Israeli] occupation’s mindset,” said Jabarin.

“From a legal point of view, this collective punishment amounts to a war crime and violates the Geneva convention. It’s a form of persecution that the state of Israel applies both in action and in law.”

Shuafat is the only refugee camp that lies in Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries but lies on the other side of the Israeli apartheid wall from the majority of the city.

Around 140,000 Palestinians live in the camp, 90 percent of which have Jerusalem resident IDs that are different from Israeli or Palestinian Authority citizenship.