Palestinian killed during Israeli raid on Jenin camp

Occupied West Bank – Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a raid on the Jenin area in the northern occupied West Bank.

The 18-year-old was identified as Ahmad Fathi Masad, a former prisoner from the village of Burqin, west of Jenin.

His killing in the Jenin refugee camp was reported just after dawn on Wednesday, and a funeral procession was held for him an hour later.

The Palestinian health ministry said he was killed with a bullet to his head. Three other Palestinian youth were also wounded by Israeli live fire and are in stable condition.

Armed confrontations broke out with Palestinian fighters in the camp.

The Israeli army said that it was “conducting counterterrorism activity” in Jenin, but did not comment on any casualties.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, which is active in the Jenin camp, said in a statement: “The blood of the martyr Ahmad and all the martyrs, will not go in vain.”

Israeli forces arrested at least 15 Palestinians in raids on other parts of Jenin and across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Masad’s killing comes just a day after another Palestinian, 20-year-old Ahmad Ibrahim Owaidat, was killed during a raid on the Aqabet Jaber refugee camp in Jericho, in the eastern West Bank.

Israel has stepped up raids and arrests across the West Bank after four attacks in Israel left 14 people, including three police officers, dead.

At least 47 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since the start of 2022.

Jenin has become the target of increasing Israeli military raids, arrests and targeted assassinations, in an attempt to crack down on growing Palestinian armed resistance there.

Fears are rampant of a possible large-scale Israeli invasion of the camp, where the armed wings of the PIJ and Fatah movements are active.

Israeli forces have killed 11 Palestinians over the past two weeks in the West Bank, including six from Jenin.

Last week, when the Jewish festival of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan overlapped, settler incursions under police protection led to daily confrontations with Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, with many Palestinians injured and arrested.

Weeks of protests against the forced displacement of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, and raids by Israeli forces on Al-Aqsa during Ramadan last year, escalated into a widespread uprising across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and an 11-day assault on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian remains in ‘critical condition’

One of the Palestinians injured during Friday’s Israeli raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, 21-year-old Walid al-Sharif, remains in a coma after he was hit in the head by a sponge-tipped bullet, according to his family.

“He remains in a coma since his arrest and is on artificial respirators. He is in a difficult condition,” Jameel Saadeh, the head of the legal department at the Palestinian Detainees’ Commission, told Al Jazeera.

Saadeh said al-Sharif remains in Israeli custody, and is being guarded by police at the Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem.

The Israeli police, however, told Al Jazeera that al-Sharif is not currently under police custody. They also labelled al-Sharif a “rioter” and said that he had not been injured with a sponge-tipped bullet.

“[Al-Sharif], a masked man who threw stones and rioted on the spot, was seriously injured when he fell to the floor on his head during his escape,” the Israeli police said. “The injured person has a previous medical background that may be relevant to the circumstances of his injury.”

Abdelrahman al-Sharif, Walid’s brother, who is a guard at the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, said on Friday that his brother was in “very critical condition.”

“Oxygen is not getting to his brain, which has impacted his brain cells. He has fractures in his skull and severe internal bleeding in his brain,” said Abdelrahman.

“They cannot operate on him because it will affect him – all we ask from God is recovery.”

Hadassah hospital had said in a statement that al-Sharif had suffered a head injury and was in very critical condition.