Palestinian medical sources have reported that Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Saturday evening, a young man at the Za’tara roadblock, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The army claimed the man stabbed and mildly injured a soldier. The sources said the slain Palestinian, identified as Rafiq Kamel at-Taj, 21 years of age, from Tubas, was shot with several rounds of live ammunition. Soldiers refused to allow Palestinian medics to approach him.
The Israeli army said the wounded soldier suffered a mild injury in his neck, before the other officers shot the Palestinian dead.
Following the shooting, the office of the Palestinian President Mahmoud ‘Abbas issued a statement strongly denouncing the fatal shooting of the young Palestinian, and said the latest assault is part of Israel’s escalating crimes against the Palestinian people.
Earlier on Saturday, soldiers shot and injured a young Palestinian man near Beit ‘Aour al-Foqa town, west of the Central West Bank City of Ramallah, before abducting him; Israeli army sources claim the Palestinian stabbed a soldier, causing a mild injury.
