A Palestinian child, Ahmad Beni Shamsa, aged 16 years old, from Beita, a village south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, has died after being shot yesterday by Israeli occupation forces.
Before Ahmad’s death was announced, a spokesperson at the Rafidia public hospital in Nablus said Ahmad had been shot in the head with live bullets and was undergoing treatment.
Yesterday, the Palestinian Minister of Health announced the incident, describing the injury as ‘critical’.
Ahmad was struck whilst participating in one of the peaceful protests frequently organised by the residents of Beita village. The demonstrations were against the occupation of lands adjoining the village, specifically the Jabal Sabih range.
Occupation forces have continuously attacked Beita residents’ peaceful protests. On 4 June, occupation forces injured 133 Palestinians after firing rubber bullets, wounding at least one of them seriously.
According to both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, there are around 650,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including al-Quds, as East Jerusalem is known in Arabic. They live across 164 settlements and 124 outposts.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) has called on the international community to take a serious, decisive position, in order to stop the crimes and abuses of the Israeli occupation forces and settlers against Palestinians, particularly children. As the AOHR UK has said, “through its silence in the face of these criminal practices and allowing the occupying state to enjoy normal relations with it, the international community is complicit in these crimes”.
