RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials called on Monday for an international investigation into the Israeli army’s killing of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank.
Soldiers shot the 16-year-old girl dead during a raid into a neighborhood in Jenin.
A general strike was declared throughout the city to protest the crime and mourn the girl’s death.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Jana Majdi Zakarneh was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers while on the roof of her house.
She was found by her family after the soldiers had left the area.
Jana Majdi Zakarneh is the 166th Palestinian killed by the Israeli armed forces in the West Bank since the start of the year, and the 10th to die this month. (Supplied)
Two others were injured in the shooting and three Palestinians were arrested during the raid, according to Palestinian sources in Jenin.
The Israeli army raided the neighborhood between 10 p.m. and midnight, and clashes erupted in the Al-Bayader area. A sniper is said to have shot the girl.
Hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against Israeli aggression and the daily killings of young Palestinians.
Zakarneh is the 166th Palestinian killed by the Israeli armed forces in the West Bank since the start of the year, and the 10th to die this month.
Yasser Zakarneh, the girl’s uncle, told Arab News that heavily armed Israeli soldiers started shooting after arriving in the neighborhood.
He added: “Jana was inside the house with her family when she heard people screaming.
“She went to the rooftop to see what was happening and to locate her cat.
“Her father went to look for her 20 minutes after the soldiers left the neighborhood as she did not answer him when he called her name. He found her lying on the floor.”
Zakarneh said that doctors at the hospital had said the girl was shot with four bullets, two to her face, one to her neck and one to her shoulder.
Jenin Gov. Maj. Gen. Akram Rajoub told Arab News that there was a state of disbelief throughout the Jenin Governorate.
He added: “Israeli behavior pushes the tension, increasing the anger of the Palestinians, and encouraging them to use the same weapons used by the Israeli army to oppress and kill them.”
The killing came a short time before the arrival of UN Special Envoy Virginia Gamba in Israel to investigate harm caused to Palestinian children in the conflict zones.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said that the killing of Zakarneh added to the horrific murders of children that occupation soldiers continue to commit.
Shtayyeh called on Gamba, the special representative of the UN secretary-general for children and armed conflict, to investigate Israel’s occupation crimes and place the country on a blacklist.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, the PLO executive committee’s secretary-general, said on Twitter that Zakarneh was a victim of the occupation’s brutality in Jenin.
He wrote: “Her blood exposes this persistent criminality that violates everything and reveals the truth about the brutal racist behavior of the occupation forces.
“We call on the regional and international bodies to immediately investigate the execution of Jana Zakarneh.”
Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “Tonight, during forces’ activity to apprehend wanted individuals in the city of Jenin, security forces arrested three wanted individuals suspected of terror involvement.
“During the activity, suspects hurled explosives and fired heavily at the soldiers. The soldiers responded with live fire toward the armed suspects.
“We are aware of reports regarding a killed Palestinian female. The incident is under review, and security forces will continue to thwart terrorism wherever it is required, while continuing their efforts to avoid harming non-combatants.”
An IDF spokesman told the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that a preliminary investigation revealed that Israeli soldiers “fired at the rooftops, from where they were shot, but they did not detect the presence of the girl during the shooting.”
