On Friday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian child near al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya town, northeast of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces shot, on Friday afternoon, a Palestinian child near the town of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, northeast of Ramallah.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that occupation soldiers opened fire with live ammunition toward the unarmed child while he was in the “Oyoun al-Haramiyya” area near the town, shooting him and causing a critical injury.
According to medical sources at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, the child, Tawfiq Hafeth Tawfiq Ajaq, 17, arrived to the hospital after being shot with a live round in the head.
Shorty after arrival to hospital, the Palestinian child, who also held American citizenship, succumbed to his critical gunshot wounds.
The United States Department of State has confirmed the death of a US citizen in the occupied West Bank.
We can confirm the death of a US citizen civilian in the West Bank on January 19, 2024.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family.
We are working to understand the circumstances of the incident and have asked the Government of Israel for further information.
Out of respect to the family at this difficult time, we have no further comment.
ABC reported: Tawfiq Ajaq was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, relatives said. His parents brought him and his four siblings to the village of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharqiya last year so they could reconnect with Palestinian culture.
As hundreds of mourners buried the 17-year-old in the family’s ancestral Palestinian village Saturday, the teen’s father, Hafez Ajaq criticized the long-standing U.S. support for Israel.
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“They are killer machines,” he said of Israeli forces. “They are using our tax dollars in the U.S. to support the weapons to kill our own children…The American society does not know the true story,” he said.
“Come here on the ground and see what’s going on. … How many fathers and mothers have to say goodbye to their children? How many more?”
In related news, the army shot and injured an 18-year-old Palestinian young man in the “Wadi al-Qarya” area in Kafr Ni’ma town, west of Ramallah.
Sources at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that their ambulance crews transported a young man who was shot in the thigh with live ammunition, to hospital.
