Israeli forces kill young Palestinian in Nablus

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian young man during anti-settlement protests in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the young man succumbed to injuries he sustained on Sobeih Mountain in Beita, south of Nablus City, on Friday.

The victim was identified as Jamil Abu Ayash, 31. He was shot in the head by Israeli forces.

According to the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service, four other Palestinians were hit by rubber bullets, while over 50 others suffered breathing difficulties due to inhaling tear gas used by the troops against the protesters.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the fatal shooting and urged the International Criminal Court to take action.

“The occupation’s suppression of the Palestinian citizens participating in nonviolent marches with live bullets is a crime in every sense of the word, amounting to a war crime and a crime against humanity,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement held the Israeli regime fully and directly responsible for the crime, calling on the permanent investigation committee formed by the UN Human Rights Council to start an immediate investigation into the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its settlers.

Since May, Beita has seen intensified clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians protesting against a settlement outpost that has been established on Sobeih Mountain by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.

Israeli troops also attacked a weekly anti-settlement protest in Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya City, in the West Bank on Friday. 

Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.

Separately, tens of thousands of Palestinians took part in mass rallies in the Gaza Strip to mark the 34th anniversary of the establishment of Hamas resistance movement on Friday. Carrying flags of Hamas and its armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the participants in the rallies chanted slogans in support of the movement.

Hamas: Comprehensive resistance, unity sole way to liberate Palestine

Hamas also calls on the Arab and Islamic world to stand decisively against normalization of ties with the Israeli regime.

During one of the rallies, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said the movement “represents all of Palestine through its adherence to its people’s rights.”

In a ceremony in Khan Yunis, Amin al-Ghalban, a senior Hamas official, said the movement “works hard” to lift the siege on Gaza.

Hamas was established in 1987 soon after the first Palestinian Intifada broke out against the Israeli occupation. The movement has been administering Gaza since 2007 when it scored a surprise parliamentary victory.

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