Israeli occupation troops shot dead two Palestinian youths during a West Bank clash
Israeli occupation troops shot dead two Palestinian youths during a West Bank clash, officials said Thursday, heightening tension ahead of the funeral of a prisoner who died in Israel.
The clashes late on Wednesday in the two of Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, came after a day of protests across the West Bank, where a general strike was called after the martyrdom on Tuesday of life prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh in an Israeli jail.
Palestinian security officials said Amer Nassar, 16, was killed by shots to the head, while the body of his 17-year-old cousin Naji Balbisi was discovered at the site at first light on Thursday with wounds to the chest.
With Palestinian anger at boiling point, resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip early Thursday fired a mortar shell into southern occupied territories, Israeli public radio said. "It's a military-use projectile,' a spokesman told AFP, adding that there were no reports of casualties or damage.
Abu Hamdiyeh's death Tuesday morning after a battle with throat cancer has been met with outrage in the Palestinian Territories. In his hometown, the southern West Bank city of Khalil, schools, shops and offices were closed Wednesday.
Wednesday's strike was also fully observed in the northern city of Nablus and in east Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Gaza Strip. Thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails also refused their breakfast in mass protest, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) said.
The Palestinian leadership has accused the Zionist entity of medical negligence in Abu Hamdiyeh's death.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday that "the Israeli government, in its arrogance, doesn't care" about the detainees. Hamas officials warned that the entity would "regret its continuing crimes", and fighters fired rockets over the border in protest both Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting a retaliatory air strike.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned Wednesday that ‘Israel’ would respond to any attacks on its territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a stern warning, saying: "If calm is disrupted, we will respond forcefully."
