Israeli forces kill 16-year-old Palestinian in escalating West Bank violence

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager near the West Bank town of Qalqilya on Friday, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Sixteen-year-old Amir Mamoum Odeh was shot in the chest with live bullets as Israeli soldiers attacked Palestinians at a military checkpoint at the northern entrance of Qalqilya, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Several others were injured in the violence on Friday evening.

استشهاد أمير مأمون عودة 16 عاماً برصاص الإحتلال في قلقيلية.

يلعن الإحتلال. pic.twitter.com/u0AgHMj5cL

— Raghad🇵🇸 (@raghadm48) March 10, 2023

In a previous statement, the ministry said that the teenager sustained a critical injury by rubber-coated metal bullets in the chest and had arrived Qalqilya Governmental Hospital, before he was pronounced dead shortly after.

An injured Palestinian was being treated for his injuries at the hospital, they said.  

Odeh’s death on Friday comes after another Palestinian, 21-year-old Abdel Karim Badih al-Sheikh, was also killed in the outskirts of Qalqilya during a raid on his village by Israeli settlers.

"يا جميل العموري.. جبنالك وردة جوري".. هتافات الشبان خلال تشييع الفتى أمير عودة الذي ارتقى برصاص الاحتلال قرب الحاجز الشمالي لمدينة قلقيلية pic.twitter.com/V5QArKf2RE

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) March 10, 2023

Palestinian mourners carried out a funeral procession for 16-year-old Odeh, before burying his body in Qalqilya’s cemetery. The procession began from the governmental hospital, before his body was returned to his family, which was then transferred to the Abu Obeida Mosque where funeral prayers were held, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site.

Mourners chanted Palestinian resistance slogans, as well as chants denouncing Israel’s brutal violence, which has escalated dramatically in recent months.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 80 Palestinians since the start of 2023, in what has been described as one of the bloodiest periods in recent Palestinian memory by rights groups. The death toll comprises at least 15 children, including Odeh.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians belonging to the Jaba Brigades, an offshoot of the Jenin Brigades on Thursday, while six Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in yet another massacre in Jenin.

The camp was also the site of another massacre, in which nine Palestinians were killed in January.