WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A Palestinian child has been killed by Zionist troops in the Aqabet Jaber refugee camp in Ariha. Mohammad Fayez Balhan, who was 15 years old, was shot in the head, chest and stomach.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that confrontations broke out soon after Zionist troops raided the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp on Monday morning, with dozens of armored vehicles and special forces, to arrest activists.
The report added that the troops fired shots indiscriminately at local residents, hitting one in the head, chest and stomach. He later succumbed to his serious gunshot wounds. Two other Palestinians were struck in the lower parts of the body.
Local sources said Zionist troops had surrounded the camp from all sides before entering it to detain activists.
This came at a time when the occupying regime’s army was guarding thousands of Zionist settlers marching on Monday to the abandoned illegal outpost of Evyatar near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus to call on the Zionist regime to ‘legalize’ the outpost and to “denounce the increased attacks on settlements in recent weeks”.
Thousands of settlers took part in the march, heavily protected by Zionist troops who closed the march’s path from 10:30am to 5pm.
At least 27 cabinet members and Knesset members attended the march.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it considers the march “a dangerous escalation and provocation of the Palestinian people, and an extension of the incitement calls of the Israeli right and the fascist right to deepen settlement at the expense of Palestinian lands, and it has dangerous repercussions on the situation in the arena of conflict”.
The ministry added that it is studying with legal experts the best ways to confront the settlement process, including filing a complaint with the UN Security Council, Human Rights Council and Permanent Commission of Inquiry as well as the relevant international courts.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 Zionist settlers broke into the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Moroccan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate, and toured it under the protection of the regime’s forces.
The Zionist settlers also provocatively performed rituals in the sacred site.
Media reports said the occupation forces had earlier stormed the mosque, and removed the Palestinian worshipers from the holy site to pave the way for the settlers’ incursions.
Hardline Israeli officials and settlers regularly storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Zionist police in Al-Quds.