IOF Strike Martyrs Children as West Bank Raids Escalate

By Staff, Agencies

Two 16-year-old Palestinians were shot and martyred late Thursday night by "Israeli" occupation forces [IOF] in the town of al-Judeira, northwest of occupied al-Quds, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Ministry identified the martyrs as Mohammad Abdullah Teim and Mohammad Rashad Fadel Qasem, both residents of al-Judeira. The two children lost their lives when the IOF “opened heavy live fire” on them, the statement said. Their bodies were later withheld by the IOF.

The fatal shooting came as "Israeli" aggression intensified across the occupied West Bank and al-Quds. Earlier, local sources reported that a Palestinian youth was injured by "Israeli" gunfire in al-Judeira, while another was detained.

This came just one day after the General Authority for Civil Affairs in the West Bank announced that 15-year-old Palestinian boy Murad Fawzi Abu Saifin was martyred after being shot by IOF in the town of al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, amid a new wave of "Israeli" raids and settler encroachments across the occupied territory

In a series of overnight raids, IOF arrested multiple Palestinians, including two from the Hindaza area east of Beit Lahm and others from Nablus and Tulkarm. Four more were detained in the town of Zeita, north of Tulkarm.

IOF also stormed several homes during an incursion into the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and raided a house in Qalqilya, witnesses said

Meanwhile, in the northern Jordan Valley, "Israeli" settlers vandalized an irrigation network serving dozens of dunams of farmland in al-Farisiya, destroying water lines and leaving crops to wither.

A day earlier, settlers began fencing off agricultural plots in the same area, reportedly in preparation to usurp the land. Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the local council in al-Maleh, said the targeted area spans nearly 2,000 dunams.

“For weeks, settlers have been fencing privately owned Palestinian land across the northern Jordan Valley in an apparent attempt to usurp it and establish new facts on the ground,” Daraghmeh said.

In al-Farisiya alone, settlers have already enclosed over 500 dunams, while in Umm al-Jamal, they attempted to seize about 1,200 dunams before Palestinian authorities intervened.