Palestinian killed, another hurt by IDF fire in West Bank
Deceased is 17-year-old Amer Nassar; soldiers opened fire on Palestinians after being attacked with fire, Molotov cocktails.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF, BEN HARTMANPalestinian protesters next to burning tyre in Hebron 370(photo credit: reuters)
A Palestinian teen was killed in clashes with the IDF near Tulkarm late Wednesday night and another was wounded in the stomach.Security forces were already on high alert for violence that was expected to break out on Thursday following the Hebron funeral for Palestinian prisoner Maissara Abu Hamdiyeh, 63, who died of esophageal cancer in Soroka University Medical Center on Tuesday.Two separate autopsies by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority found that his death was caused by cancer, but that did not quell Palestinian anger at Israel. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of medical negligence in his death.Hamdiyeh was jailed in 2002 and given a life sentence for his role in attempting to bomb the Caffit restaurant in Jerusalem’s German Colony.Hamdiyeh was hailed as a martyr and a hero, and violence immediately broke out in the West Bank Tuesday and continued Wednesday.According to the IDF, Palestinians attacked a guard station near Tulkarm late Wednesday night and threw Molotov cocktails at it. Soldiers responded with live fire, but the IDF would not confirm any deaths.The soldiers targeted by the firebombing felt their lives to be at risk before using live fire, a senior defense source told The Jerusalem Post.Abir Kopty of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee confirmed that according to the Red Crescent, Amer Nassar, 17, was killed by IDF fire.Some 200 Palestinians rioted in Hebron, where they threw stones and scores of Molotov cocktails at IDF forces near the police checkpoint, which is often the flashpoint for such violence.An IDF officer was lightly wounded.
Stones were also thrown at security forces near the Palestinian village of Beit Omar and the settlements of Migdal Oz and Efrat.In Nablus, Palestinians held a protest march that ended near the Hawara checkpoint, where they clashed with the IDF, which reported that stones were thrown at its soldiers. Palestinians also declared a commercial strike, closing their shops in the cities of Hebron, Nablus and in east Jerusalem.On Tuesday, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared a three-day hunger strike, in solidarity with Hamdiyeh.Prisons Service spokesman Sivan Weitzman said Wednesday that a total of 4,620 security prisoners – nearly all of those held in Israel’s prisons – sent back all three of their meals on Wednesday, in a show of solidarity.As usual in such cases, Weitzman said that the Prisons Service does not see it as a hunger strike, rather a “meal refusal,” adding that she thinks it will probably only last up to three days, as is usually the case with such protests.She added that the Prisons Service had deployed extra officers to the security blocks, in case the situation gets violent, and has gone on a higher level of readiness, due to the possibility of worsening protests.Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said Wednesday that he was worried by continued tensions over unresolved prisoner issues.Separately, in the West Bank, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli vehicles, damaging two buses near Nablus and a car near the village of Halhoul.Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.
