Ramallah, August 8, 2024—Israeli forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Jenin during a military incursion on Tuesday morning.
Khatab Majdi Asad Abu Badawiya, 15, was struck by shrapnel from an Israeli drone-fired missile around 9:40 a.m. on August 6 during an Israeli military incursion into the eastern neighborhood of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Khatab allegedly threw a homemade explosive device toward a heavily armored Israeli military vehicle prior to the drone strike. The strike, which injured Khatab, killed three armed Palestinian men. After Khatab was injured in the strike, an ambulance attempted to reach him but Israeli soldiers in the military vehicle fired live ammunition toward the paramedics. The military vehicle then dragged a civilian vehicle parked nearby and attempted to push it onto the child lying on the ground. After failing to do so, the military vehicle advanced towards Khatab, who was still alive, and drove one of its wheels onto his abdomen. The military vehicle stayed near the bodies of the child and the other young men for about 40 minutes before withdrawing.
“Israeli forces continue showing contempt for Palestinian children’s lives as they carry out aerial attacks in densely populated civilian areas like Jenin,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Israeli forces not only injured Khatab in a drone strike, but they shot at paramedics trying to provide aid, then parked their military vehicle on top of his torso while he bled out in a shocking act of cruelty. Countries need to enact an immediate arms embargo and sanctions on Israel to force accountability for Israeli forces who have been allowed to brutally kill Palestinian children with impunity for decades.”
Palestinian residents demolished a wall so paramedics could walk to the scene, since Israeli forces targeted the ambulance with live ammunition. Paramedics transported Khatab and the three Palestinian men to the ambulance, which was parked about 200 meters (656 feet) away. Doctors pronounced all four of them dead on arrival at Jenin Governmental Hospital.
Israeli forces stormed the center of Jenin on August 5 around 3:30 p.m. Soldiers raided the Gulf Exchange Company on Abu Bakr Street. During the incursion into the city center, Israeli military vehicles deliberately smashed many vehicles by crashing into them. The soldiers also fired heavily and indiscriminately while the area was crowded with vendors and shoppers.
Palestinian gunmen confronted the Israeli soldiers. During these confrontations, Israeli military reinforcements, accompanied by large military bulldozers, arrived in Jenin city and refugee camp. The bulldozers began destroying infrastructure, demolishing walls of several homes, and smashing and burning vendor stalls in the Jenin market.
After Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin, they entered the Palestinian village of Kafr Qud to the west and besieged a house, killing two young men and confiscating their bodies. Three others were injured in the besiegement and were subsequently arrested.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 62 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
143 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.
