Israeli troops shoot Palestinian youth dead
February 24, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot dead a 19-year-old man amid unrest at the Deheishe Palestinian refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
The man, named by the AFP news agency as Jihad al-Jifari, was said to be a supporter of the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said troops were attacked by a crowd throwing stones and firebombs, with one soldier being injured. She said the troops had tried in vain to disperse the crowd.
"The force, feeling imminent danger to their lives, responded with fire toward an instigator," she added.
The camp was set up in 1949 as a temporary refuge for Palestinians who fled villages west of Jerusalem in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and now permits Palestinians limited self-rule in certain areas.
US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority broke down in April. Abbas has since stepped up unilateral moves at the UN toward Palestinian statehood.
According to the UN, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in a 50-day war in the Gaza Strip in July and August last year, including more than 400 children.
rc/mkg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)