Palestinians killed in West Bank

16/10/2008| IslamWeb

Two Palestinian youths have been killed in overnight clashes in the West Bank city of Ramallah, emergency services have said.

Aziz Beerat, 20, from Kafr Malik village, east of Ramallah, was shot dead by Israeli troops in the early hours of Thursday.

The other man, identified by Palestinian doctors as 21-year-old Mohammed al-Ramahi, died from injuries that he sustained after being shot at during protests outside a nearby refugee camp on Wednesday night.

The shootings come just one day after a 17-year-old Palestinian, Abdel Kader Zeid, was killed by Israeli soldiers close to a Jewish settlement near Ramallah.

Warning shots

The Israeli military claim that Beerat was one of three men carrying firebombs under cover of darkness who were spotted by an army patrol. They said he was shot after ignoring warning fire.

Israeli soldiers said al-Ramahi was shot during what they described as a mob attack on an army position in the refugee camp.

The shootings follow a series of violent clashes in the West Bank amid growing tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers.

 

Israel has been urged by the US to dismantle illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and remove about 500,000 Israelis living there.

Palestinians say that the illegal settlements are a major stumbling block to a peace deal with Israel.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Abdulqader Mohammed Zeid, 17, into a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah on October 14, 2008.

Al-Jazeera