Israeli special forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy after he saw them sneaking into the Jenin refugee camp during a military raid in the northern occupied West Bank, according to a report by the Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
The teenager has been identified as Rafat Omar Ahmad Khamayseh who succumbed to his wounds after the Israeli forces chased and shot him in the abdomen.
In a report on Wednesday, September 20, DCIP said, Rafat was killed on Tuesday, September 19, as he was leaving his grandfather’s house in the Jenin refugee camp.
“As he left the house, Rafat saw Israeli special forces exiting three Palestinian licensed cars and surround the home of the father of a Palestinian man wanted for arrest. Rafat fled, yelling, ‘Special forces! Special forces!’ One Israeli soldier chased Rafat and shot him in the abdomen from a distance of 10 meters [33 feet],” DCIP said.
Israeli forces fired at the boy again, when a Palestinian man came to his aid and “threw himself on top of Rafat and rolled him to his house, less than five meters away. The man and his family sheltered Rafat for about an hour and a half as the Israeli military prevented ambulances from accessing the Jenin refugee camp. Rafat died before an ambulance transferred him to Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin,” it further said.
DCIP added that the boy “was hit with one bullet that entered his abdomen and exited the upper right side of his chest, adding that “he bled profusely from his mouth and nose while he waited for an ambulance.”
Since the start of 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 240 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged the Gaza Strip, including 46 children, making 2023 one of the deadliest years in the occupied territories.
