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LAST MINUTE:
Palestinian Youth Shot Dead East of
Ramallah

Aysar Yasser al Zaben, 16
years old, was shot in his back yesterday evening in his family's lands
in Mazra'a al Sharqia, east of Ramallah, apparently by a settler.
Aysar
alZaben's body was found in his plot by family members only hours after
he was shot. He was found lying dead on the ground, face down, with a
bullet hole in his back after being missing since the evening.
According
to initial information, alZaben was shot by a settler when tending in
his lands between 4:30 and 6:00 pm.
At the
time, a group of youth from the village scuffled with a settler near the
adjacent Route 60.
According
to the testimonies of some of these youth, they were throwing stones
towards Route 60, near a roadblock preventing Palestinian access to the
road.
At some
point, a settler stopped his car and exited it, beginning to shoot live
ammunition towards them, which caused them to run away back to the
village. Escaping the shots, they were not aware that alZaben, who
wasn't with them and did not participate in the stone throwing, was hit.
As hours
passed and alZaben did not return home, his family began looking for
him. Having heard the shots earlier in the day, they began calling the
Israeli Army, police and Civil Administration trying to locate him,
thinking he may have been detained. Eventually, they set out to look for
him in their fields, where they knew he had worked in the afternoon.
According to his uncle, his lifeless body was found lying face down on
the ground with a bullet hole in his back.
For more details: Jonathan Pollak 054-632-7736
Mazra'a alSharqia is an agrarian village of about 5,000,
located 15 kilometers Northeast of Ramallah. Despite the village's
location next to Route 60, which runs across the West Bank from north to
south and was, in part, built on the Mazra'a's lands, residents have no
access to the road, as all the paths leading to and from it have been
blocked by Israel.
After
being disconnected from Route 60 in recent years, the only road from the
area's villages to Ramallah is a dangerous old agrarian road, which due
to the mountainous terrain is often flooded in winters, completely
disconnecting the region from the rest of the world.
Last
Tuesday, a group of settlers from a nearby settlement have amassed in
the Mazra'a alSharqia's lands and attempted to enter the village after
the Israeli government announced it will demolish illegal houses in a
number of West Bank Jewish-only settlements. Residents, who suspected
the settlers intend on holding a "price-tag" action in the village,
confronted them, and manged to ward off the invasion.
They were
then attacked by a force of soldiers who shot dozens of rounds of live
ammunition and eventually also invaded the village.
Ricevuto dal
Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
| Amarat al
Ramouni | Ramallah | Occupied Territories
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