Rayyan Mohammad Abu Mualla, 16, was killed by Israeli gunfire during a raid in Qabatiy south of Jenin. photo courtesy of WAFA news agency.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Rayyan Mohammad Abu Mualla, 16, was shot dead during an Israeli raid on the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, on Saturday evening. Local sources told the official WAFA news agency that Israeli forces opened fire during the operation.
Witnesses said Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews from reaching the wounded teenager for an extended period, a routine practice, leaving him bleeding before he died. Israeli forces later seized his body, according to local media.
In a separate incident earlier the same evening, Ahmad Saed Shahada Zeyoud, 22, from the town of Silat al-Harithiya west of Jenin, was killed after being shot in the chest during another Israeli raid.
Occupation troops opened fire on the town's local population amid ongoing army incursions across the Jenin governorate that have resulted in fatalities, injuries, and widespread fear among civilians.
With the deaths of Zeyoud and Abu Mualla, the number of Palestinians killed in Jenin since the start of Israel’s assault on the city and its refugee camp in January has risen to 62, according to Palestinian officials.
The killings come amid a sharp rise in violence in the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. In November, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of an increasing pattern of unlawful killings by Israeli security forces and settlers.
Türk said Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 1,030 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 2023, among them 223 children, with few incidents resulting in accountability.
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