U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and the peace group CodePink were among those who condemned Friday’s killing by Israeli forces of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the illegally occupied West Bank.
Middle East Eye reports Mohammed Daadas, who was from the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, was shot in the stomach during a post-prayer confrontation with Israeli forces in Deir al-Hatab, a village east of Nablus that has been the site of repeated attacks by Israeli settler-colonists over the past month. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Daadas died in a Nablus hospital later Friday after attempts to save his life failed.
Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, responded to the boy’s death by tweeting, “Our country must stop enabling the killing of children.”
The United States gives nearly $4 billion in annual, no-strings-attached military aid to Israel, one of the world’s wealthiest nations on a per-capita basis.
Noting the high number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces, the women-led peace group CodePink asked, “How many more?”
13-year-old Mohammad Da’das was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank today, bringing the toll of Palestinian children murdered by Israel to at least 80.
How many more? pic.twitter.com/QGIrq0pUXY
— CODEPINK (@codepink) November 5, 2021
Israeli forces killed 67 children during this year’s Operation Guardian of the Walls assault on Gaza and, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Information, at least 3,090 children since 2000.
Palestinian-American author and analyst Yousef Munayyer responded to Friday’s killing by noting Israel’s recent internationally condemned designation of six human rights groups as “terrorist organizations.”
“It is precisely efforts to seek justice for victims like Mohammed that Israel wants to eliminate by targeting human rights groups,” he tweeted.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said Friday’s deadly violence involved soldiers responding to a “riot” near the illegal settlement of Alon Moreh.
“During the disturbance, rioters threw stones at Israeli soldiers,” the IDF official said. “The troops responded with riot dispersal means and live fire.”
The Palestine Chronicle reports at least five other Palestinians were injured while protesting Israeli settler-colonization, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid Friday.