Today, Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that two young men were shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces, raising the number of martyrs in the occupied West Bank to 6 since the beginning of this year.
The Ministry of Health said that it had been informed by the Public Authority for Civil Affairs of the death of the young man, Sanad Muhammad Othman Samamra, 19, who was shot by the Israeli occupation forces near the "Havat Yehuda" settlement, which is built on Palestinian lands south of Hebron.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) also reported that the Israeli occupation forces shot Samamra, critically wounding him, and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him.
Earlier today, the Ministry of Health announced the death of Ahmed Amer Abu Junaid (21 years old), who succumbed to bullet wounds from the Israeli occupation, on Wednesday morning, after storming the Balata camp, east of Nablus.
The ministry stated - in a statement - that the young man, Abu Junaid, was killed after being shot in the head with live bullets. He was transferred to Rafidia Governmental Hospital while he is in a critical condition, before his death was announced later.
Young Ahmed Abu Junaid, a journalism student at Al-Quds Open University, Nablus branch, lies on an intensive care bed in Rafidia Hospital, after he was severely wounded in the head at dawn today, in the occupation’s aggression against Balata camp pic.twitter.com/WW5qiiAC1H
- Palestine TV - Palestine TV (@palestinetv95) January 11, 2023
The occupation forces, accompanied by an Israeli special force, infiltrated the camp and surrounded a house, as a result of which violent confrontations broke out, during which the occupation soldiers fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at the young men.
For its part, the Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the occupation soldiers fired randomly during the raid.
“By God, tell me that Jerusalem is very expensive, Father. Tell me to quench it with my blood, Father.”
– The father of the martyr Ahmed Abu Junaid pic.twitter.com/yR86q88YTD
- S.D 𓂆 (@jalestinian2) January 11, 2023
With Samamra’s martyrdom, the number of martyrs in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year rises to 6, after the martyrdom of the boy Amer Ghazi Zaytoun (16 years old) and the young man Ahmed Amer Abu Junaid (21 years old) in Nablus, and in Jenin Muhammad Samer Hassan Hoshieh (21 years old). And the boy Fouad Mahmoud Ahmed Abed (17 years old), as well as the boy Adam Essam Shaker Ayad (15 years old) from Dheisheh camp, south of Bethlehem.
It should be noted that the occupation forces killed 224 Palestinians during the past year 2022, including 59 martyrs from Jenin Governorate and 61 children.
"The dear one who was defending us is gone." The
children of Nablus cry, the fighter Ahmed Abu Junaid, after he was shot dead by the occupation.
pic.twitter.com/ocMBk81DC4
- Arkan (@ar2aan) January 11, 2023
In the same context, Defense for Children International Palestine Branch confirmed that the investigations it conducted in the field proved that the Israeli occupation forces "routinely resort to lethal force against Palestinian children, in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial killing or intentional killing."