A young Palestinian, from the northern West Bank village of Yasid, is believed by friends and family to have been shot dead by Israeli forces six days ago, as he tried to cross the border, into Israel, without permission. 20-year-old Muhammad Mufeed Yousif Mustafa Thahir, an engineering student from the Nablus region, was found dead last Friday, this just two days following an attempt to enter Israel with a friend in order to find work.
The friend, Fadi Halayqa from al-Shuyukh village in Hebron, told Ma’an News Agency that, after he and Thahir walked for two hours trying to bypass al-Jabaa military checkpoint, he heard heavy gunfire and started to run back:
‘I ran for about five minutes then stopped and hid. When I looked around I couldn’t see Muhammad,’ noting that he and Muhammad had intended to work during the summer holiday to help pay their tuition fees.
‘I am sure Muhammad was shot dead by Israeli soldiers,’ he said.
According to Muhammad’s uncle, the body was being held at Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, with Israeli intelligence turning over Muhammad’s phone and ID but refusing to explain how he died.
