Palestinian teen dies of wounds sustained Sunday in firefight with IDF
A Palestinian youth who was wounded during an Israel Defense Forces arrest operation in Jenin succumbed to his injuries on Monday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
He was identified as 17-year-old Mohammad Zakarneh. The Palestinian Health Ministry said he was wounded in his pelvis during Sunday’s incident. According to Palestinian health officials, Zakarneh was struck by an expanding bullet — a particularly lethal type of round — and eventually died of severe blood loss.
The soldiers entered the city, in the northern West Bank, in order to arrest two brothers of Ra’ad Hazem, the terrorist who killed three Israelis in a terror attack in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
The military said it shot Zakarneh after he fired at the soldiers from a passing motorcycle.
The IDF also opened fire on a car it said was carrying the two brothers, but it ultimately fled the area. The army claimed soldiers had aimed at the car’s tires, but footage showed smashed windows.
Hazem’s family has two houses in the area — one in the Jenin refugee camp and another in the nearby village of Deir Ghazaleh, where the raid took place.
#BREAKING: 17-year-old Mohammad Zakarneh from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin succumbs to wounds he sustained by Israeli gunfire yesterday.#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/SnGuQJSigG
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) April 11, 2022
Fathi Hazem, the father of the Tel Aviv terrorist, wrote on Facebook that his wife and his younger son were traveling together in the car when soldiers shot at them.
“The army attacked the vehicle directly. I moved the vehicle so they hit its side. They planned to kill, not stop,” Hazem’s brother said in a video circulating on Palestinian social media. He said he was in the car with his mother and 6-year-old brother.
Israeli security forces have sought to arrest family members of Ra’ad Hazem, particularly his father and one of his brothers, for their alleged involvement in the attack. Hazem’s father, Fathi, is a former security prisoner who previously served as an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s security services in Jenin. He has praised his son for the killings and refused an Israeli summons for questioning.
Tensions have risen sharply between Israel and the Palestinians in recent weeks against the backdrop of repeated terror attacks in Israeli cities that left 14 dead. The army has stepped up its West Bank activities in an attempt to crack down on the spiraling violence.