Nablus: A Palestinian youth shot by Israeli forces died from his wounds on Sunday, Palestinian medics said, the second death from the same incident on Saturday that may fuel tensions in the occupied West Bank.
Osaid al-Kaddous, 17, was fatally wounded in a confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths, who had been throwing stones, in the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, was killed there on Saturday.
Due to be buried later Sunday, they were the first Palestinians to die in recent weeks of protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Kaddous had been struck in the head by what a Palestinian medic who treated him said was a live bullet.
The Israeli Army has denied live ammunition was used.
In a statement, the Army said two Palestinians were hit by Israeli forces during what it described as an "illegal riot" in the village. Rubber bullets were used, it said.
Ghassan Khatib, who speaks for the Palestinian government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said: "We look at this as part of the Israeli escalation. It could have been treated in a completely different way.”
"But the Israelis have been escalating and this is something the prime minister has been warning against."
The villagers of Iraq Burin have been staging weekly protests over Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to farmland that lies near the Jewish settlement of Har Brakha.
Near Bethelehem Sunday, about 100 Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli security forces, the Israeli army said. The security forces responded with riot dispersal means, it said.
Four Palestinians killed amid escalating violence
Amid escalating violence,Israeli soldiers today shot dead two Palestinians who attacked
them with pitchforks near the West Bank city of Nablus,
bringing to four the number of Palestinians casualties under
Israeli fire in the last 24 hours.
"Two men tried to stab a soldier during a routine
patrol near the Awarta security crossing near Nablus. The
force opened fire and confirmed their death," an army
spokesperson said.
The soldiers from the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF)
Nahshon Battalion were stationed south of the Israeli
settlement of Itamar in order to protect Palestinians plowing
their land.
Earlier today, a 19-year-old Palestinian died of
wounds sustained one day earlier when IDF troops opened fire
on demonstrators south of Nablus.
Oseyd Abd al-Nasser Kadus was hit in the midriff and
was taken to the hospital in Nablus where he had been listed
in critical condition.
Another youth, Ibrahim Abd al-Khader Kadus, 16, died
yesterday after being hit in the heart by IDF troops.
The two were wounded when IDF soldiers tried to
prevent clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians near
the village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus.
Army sources told daily Ha'aretz that the
Palestinians' claims that live rounds were fired is false.
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which sent an
investigator to the hospital in Nablus, said that both
casualties were the result of live rounds.
In recent weeks demonstrations have taken place in the
area by villagers, who have also pelted soldiers with stones.
Condemning the incident, an aide to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said that Israel
has responded to US and international efforts to revive peace
talks "with more escalation" that thwarted attempts to get
negotiations going.
The Middle East peace Quartet - the United States, the
European Union, Russia, the United Nations -- on Friday
called on Israel to halt all settlement activity, dismantle
settlement outposts erected since March 2001 and stop house
demolitions in annexed east Jerusalem.
It also called upon Israel and the Palestinians to
resume talks on final status issues -- security, borders of a
future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and
the status of Jerusalem.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 21, 2010, 22:19