Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian teen boy
Israeli military forces have shot and killed a Palestinian teenage boy as tensions continue in the occupied Palestinian territories as part of the aftermath of US President Donald Trump's announcement of his so-called deal of the century on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian witnesses, requesting not to be named, said bitter clashes broke out on Wednesday evening between a group of Palestinian protesters and Israeli military forces in Bab al-Zawiyeh neighborhood of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), situated 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli soldiers fired live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets as well as tear gas canisters in order to disperse the crowd.
The 17-year-old boy, identified as Mohammad Salman al-Haddad, was shot in the heart and taken to a nearby hospital to receive proper medical treatment.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement Haddad was brought in critical condition to hospital and was pronounced dead shortly after.
The statement added he had been hit by a live bullet in the chest, which penetrated through his heart, killing him almost immediately.
On January 28, Trump unveiled his so-called deal of the century, negotiated with Israel but without the Palestinians.
Palestinian leaders, who severed all ties with Washington in late 2017 after Trump controversially recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of the Israeli regime, immediately rejected the plan, with President Abbas saying it “belongs to the dustbin of history.”
Thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip poured onto the street in immediate condemnation of the plan.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said "a thousand no's" to the plan.
"After the nonsense that we heard today, we say a thousand no's to the deal of the century," Abbas said at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
He said the Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem.
"We will not kneel and we will not surrender," Abbas said, adding that the Palestinians would resist the plan through "peaceful, popular means".
Lebanon’s resistance movement, Hezbollah, has called the plan a “deal of shame,” said it was a very dangerous step which would have negative consequences on the region's future.
It also said the proposal would not have happened without the “complicity and betrayal” of several Arab states.