On Thursday dawn, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man in the Qalandia refugee camp, north of the occupied capital, Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and abducted fifteen young men. The slain Palestinian is the fourth to be killed by the soldiers in 24 hours.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the slain man, Samir Awni Harbi Aslan, 41, from Qalandia refugee camp, was killed after the soldiers shot him with live fire in the chest.
The Health Ministry added that, after shooting and seriously wounding Samir, the soldiers prevented the locals and Palestinian medics from reaching him to administer first aid and move him to a hospital.
According to eyewitnesses, the soldiers shot the slain man when he tried to defend his son, whom the soldiers repeatedly assaulted while trying to abduct him.
The WAFA Palestinian News Agency said:
“Baba (Dad) help me,” shouted Ramzi, 17, calling on his father, Samir Aslan, to save him from the Israeli occupation soldiers who broke into his home in Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, at dawn this morning and arrested him.
At his son’s call, Samir, 41, rushed out of his apartment on the third floor of their four-story building. When he reached the entrance of the building, the soldiers aimed their guns at him and prevented him from coming out, forcing him to return to his home.
Samir could not bear the sight of his eldest son being arrested and handcuffed, knowing very well how brutal and barbaric the soldiers could be. But when he couldn’t see his son, he went to the roof of his building to watch what the soldiers were doing with his son. But as soon as he went up a wooden ladder placed on a wall on the roof, a sniper stationed in another building located directly behind his house shot him.”
The Qalandia Media Center said the soldiers also invaded and ransacked many homes and abducted fifteen Palestinians, including children and five former political prisoners.
The abducted Palestinians have been identified as Osama Na’im Hamad, Ali Hamad, Shafiq Awwad, Mo’tasem Awwad Hamsho, Adham Awwad, Ramzi Aslan (the son of the slain man), Eyad Emteir, Ahmad Emteir, Kamal Abu Ghweila, Ali Ibrahim Zayed, Karim Abu Latifa, Ehab Abu Latifa, Adam Badran, Mustafa Al-Jouri, and Mohammad Salah Al-Jouri.
National and Islamic factions in Qalandia issued statements mourning the slain man and calling for a general strike in the refugee camp.
On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers killed Sanad Mohammad Othman Samamra, 19, after he reportedly stabbed and moderately injured an Israeli colonialist settler near Havat Yehuda illegal colony built on stolen Palestinian lands in Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.
Also Wednesday, The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that a seriously injured young man, Ahmad Amer Abu Jneid, 21, who Israeli soldiers shot and seriously injured earlier in Balata refugee camp, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, has succumbed to his wounds.
The number of Palestinians whom Israeli soldiers killed in the first twelve days of this year, 2023, is now seven.
Besides Samir, Sanad, and Ahmad, the soldiers killed Fu’ad Mohammad ‘Abed, 17, from Kafr Dan near Jenin, and Mohammad Samer Houshiyya, 22, from Al-Yamoun near Jenin, Amer Abu Zeitoun, 16, from Nablus, and Adam Essam Ayyad, 15, from Bethlehem.
