Palestinian teenager Jassem Muhammad Nakhla, who was shot and grievously injured by Israeli forces near the al-Jalazun refugee camp in the central occupied West Bank in March, succumbed to his wounds on Monday, April 10, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported.
Hundreds of Palestinians take part in the funeral of Ali Safi in the al-Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah, March 18, 2015. Israeli soldiers shot Safi, 18, with live bullets during clashes near the refugee camp (Photo: Activestills)
Nakhla, 17 years old, died in an Israeli hospital in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces shot him in the head and foot on March 23 when he was in a vehicle with three other young Palestinians.
One of the other youths, 17-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Ibrahim al-Hattab, died that day, while the two others, Muhammad Hattab, 18, and Muhammad Moussa Nakhla, 18, were also seriously wounded. Medical sources told Ma’an news agency on Monday that Nakhla had been clinically dead since he was injured, and had been kept on life support since.
The circumstances of the shooting have been highly contested, as local sources told Ma’an at the time of the deadly shooting that Israeli soldiers in a military tower near the entrance of the camp, which is located adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El, opened up with heavy fire towards the teens’ vehicle while they were inside.
An Israeli army spokesperson claimed at the time that the boys were throwing Molotov cocktails at the settlement, and that they were outside of their car when they were shot. However, video and photographic footage taken by locals at the scene following the shooting showed the vehicle riddled with bullets, windows shattered, and blood staining the seats, casting doubt on the Israeli army’s narrative of the event.
Nakhla is the 18th Palestinian killed by Israeli forces this year, and marked the fourth time that Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian minor since the beginning of 2017.
