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Two-year-old Palestinian killed in Israeli West Bank raid: Report
The two-year-old girl was shot in the head in her West Bank home on Saturday while she was eating dinner with her family
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday shot a two-year-old girl in the head in her home in the West Bank, reported CBC, citing the Palestinian health ministry. A funeral for the girl was held on Sunday.
The Palestinian health ministry said that the girl, Laila Muhammad Al-Khatib was shot dead during an Israeli military raid on the village of Ash-Shuhada, just south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
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“They started to shoot at us through the windows without any warning. All of a sudden, the special forces raided us and were shooting through the windows,” said Ghada Asous, the child's grandmother as quoted by the CBC.
The child's mother, who was pregnant, also sustained minor injuries.
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Amid a ceasefire in Gaza, the IDF has continued a range of strikes in the occupied West Bank. A day after the ceasefire took effect, the IDF started a major operation involving hundreds of Israeli troops along with armoured vehicles, drones and helicopters in Jenin which houses one of the largest Palestinian refugee camps and is home to the resistance movement.
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin and surrounding areas since the start of the operation a week ago, including four claimed as fighters by Hamas and the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad.
The Israel and Palestine director of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) told CBC that they had identified several instances of unlawful killings of children and other civilians by the IDF in the West Bank.
"In this particular case, it speaks to a pattern of such a reckless disregard for Palestinian life that bystanders and others are often regularly caught up in the killings," he said.
He added that the recent escalation in military violence in the region was "dramatic" and “alarming.”
The IDF has not commented on the death of the child but stated that their troops had carried out a counterterrorism operation in the region to root out suspected militants. They stated that they were investigating reports of civilians being injured.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague said in July last year that Israel's occupation of the West Bank violates international law. They also gave a non-binding advisory opinion that the IDF should withdraw its presence in occupied Palestinian territories, which was rejected by Israel.
