SILAT AL-HARITHIYA, Palestinian Territories —
Israeli occupation forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager in a West Bank a confrontation, during
what Israel on Monday described as an operation to demolish the home of a
suspected Muhammad Jaradat, who is accused of killing an Israeli settler.
اضافة اعلان
The
Palestinian health ministry identified
the youth as Mohammed Abu Salah, 17, who was killed after Israeli forces late
Sunday entered the village of Silat Al-Harithiya near the flashpoint town of
Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Salah's mother, Rafika Abu Saleh, told AFP
that when her son left their home in the nearby village of Al-Yamun he said he
was going to a wedding party, but in fact went to the scene of the clashes,
where he was shot in the head.
Soldiers and border police had entered the
village "to demolish the floor of the residence in which the terrorist
Muhammad Jaradat resided," Israeli forces said in a statement.
Israel has blamed Jaradat and others for the
fatal shooting of an Israeli settler in the illegal
West Bank outpost of Homesh
in December.
Abu Salah's body, draped in a white sheet,
was hoisted by mourners ahead of his funeral, with the burial attended by
hundreds of people, including masked gunmen who fired into the air.
Demolitions
The army had set up checkpoints in the area,
removing rubbish bins which had been set on fire by
Palestinian protesters.
It later said it had completed the
demolition and withdrawn from the village.
Israel regularly destroys the homes of
individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.
The practice has been condemned by critics
as a form of collective punishment.
Israeli forces said Jaradat was responsible
for the death of Yehuda Dimentman, killed when gunmen sprayed a settler car
with roughly a dozen bullets as it drove out of Homesh in December. Two others
were injured in the attack.
Homesh had been evacuated by Israeli forces
in 2005 but settlers have nevertheless continued to operate there, fuelling
tensions with Palestinians.
Israel arrested four people days after the
December shooting.
Around 475,000 settlers live in the West
Bank, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians, in communities regarded as
illegal under international law.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is
the former head of a settler lobbying council who opposes Palestinian
statehood.
He has ruled out any formal peace talks with
Palestinians during his tenure but said he will work to improve economic
conditions in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967
Arab-Israeli War.
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