Israel finally admitted that its military forces shot and killed Jana Zakarneh, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl on Sunday, but added that she was killed by “unintentional” Israeli fire.
This Monday, the Israeli military issued a statement and after 24 hours, finally admitted that Jana Zakarneh, Palestinian teenager girl, was killed by direct shooting of Israeli soldiers during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. However, the statement also noted that there was no intention of killing the 16-year-old unarmed girl.
“Following an initial inquiry, it was determined that the girl who was killed was hit by unintentional fire aimed at armed gunmen on a roof in the area from which the force was fired upon,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said. “The IDF and its commanders regret any harm to uninvolved civilians in Palestine, including those who are in a combat environment and in close proximity to armed terrorists during exchanges of fire,” the statement continued.
Speaking of the details of the murder, Jana’s uncle, Majed Zakarneh, said in an interview with CNN that his niece “was shot with four bullets, two to her face, one to her neck, and one to her shoulder.””.
He also noted that the Israeli military were “heavily shooting everywhere. Jana was inside the house with her family and when she heard people screaming, she went to the rooftop to see what is happening. Twenty minutes after the soldiers left the neighborhood, her father went to look for her … He found her lying on the floor with a face full of blood”.
During the Israeli raid to the area, two other Palestinians were injured and three were arrested “suspected of terror involvement”, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Monday. Not surprisingly, no IDF injuries were reported.
Palestine calls on UN to investigate the crime
In reaction to the crime that the Israeli military committed by killing yet another Palestinian kid, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh issued a statement, calling on the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, “to investigate the crimes of the occupation and put Israel on the blacklist of UN.”
Good to mention that Jana is the 53rd Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces this year alone, marking 2022 the deadliest year for the Palestinians so far. Adults included; the number of the killed Palestinians reach to 166 so far.
“”The murder of the child Jana Majdi Zakarneh adds to the horrific murders of children that the occupation soldiers continue to commit,” Shtayyeh also said in his statement.
Although Israel claims that most killed have been militants or engaging violently with soldiers, human rights groups tell a different story and believe that bystanders have also been killed in huge numbers. Following Jana’s killing, a general strike was declared in Jenin on Monday, WAFA said, adding that “hundreds of people” took to the streets to protest “ongoing Israeli aggression”.
Similarly on Thursday, the Israeli soldiers shot and killed another 16-year-old boy and seriously injured another in the west of Ramallah, according to a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health last week. “Diaa Al-Rimawi, 16-years-old, was injured by two bullets from the back. The first exited from his chest and the second exited from the abdomen,” that statement said.
