WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The European Union and Britain have called for a swift investigation into the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Palestinian girl at the hands of the Zionist troops in the town of Beitunia near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel, as a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), must safeguard the rights of children, and ensure their protection, care and dignity, and right to life. This incident should be swiftly investigated and accountability ensured,” it said in a statement.
The statement noted that at least 32 children have been killed by Zionist troops in the West Bank since the beginning of the current year, and in many instances excessive use of lethal force has apparently been used by Zionist troops.
The EU expressed its deepest condolences to the family of the Palestinian teenager.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as 15-year-old Fulla Rasmi Abdelazeez Masalmeh.
“She was due to turn 16 on her birthday tomorrow. She was killed when occupation soldiers fired at her during a raid on Beitunia,” it said in a statement on Monday.
Palestinian officials initially wrongly identified the victim as 19-year-old teenager Sanaa al-Tal.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, another Palestinian, 26-year-old Anas Hassouneh, was injured and arrested in the shooting.
Moreover, Britain asked Zionist regime authorities to launch a thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Masalmeh’s death.
It stressed that London continues to urge for self-restraint in the use of live ammunition by Zionist troops.
In another development, the Zionist regime appears set to demolish a number of privately-owned Palestinian houses in the occupied East Al-Quds neighborhood of al-Tur, amid ongoing land grab policies carried out by the Tel Aviv regime.
According to Palestinian WAFA news agency, the regime’s police, accompanied by staff of the municipality of West Al-Quds, stormed several neighborhoods in al-Tur, photographed a number of homes in the area and placed demolition notices against the structures.
The local source did not provide further information on who owns the houses or when the demolitions will take place.
Earlier on Monday, local sources said that Zionist troops demolished two Palestinian-owned houses in the town of Tarqumia, northwest of the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, in order to expand two illegal settlements.
The destruction of houses took place even though the land owners own legal papers that prove their ownership.
In a report issued in September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the regime has demolished close to 9,000 Palestinian-owned structures since 2009, rendering thousands of Palestinians homeless. The demolitions have displaced some 13,000 Palestinians and inflicted losses on around 152,000 others, the UN report added.