Israeli attacks kill five in Gaza and West Bank, including children
Israeli strikes in Gaza on Monday killed four men and an eight-year-old boy, while a 15-year-old boy was shot dead in the occupied West Bank. Human rights group B'Tselem condemned the 'unprecedented killing' of Palestinian children.
On Monday, June 29, Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank resulted in the deaths of several people, including children. Gaza's civil defense agency reported four adult men and an eight-year-old boy killed, while in the West Bank, a 15-year-old teenager was shot dead.
According to the Wafa news agency, an Israeli drone struck the Wadi al-Salqa bridge on al-Baraka Street in central Gaza on Monday morning. The attack killed eight-year-old Malik Wael Abu Shaweesh, along with Ali Fayez Isbaitan and Hassan Salman al-Hanajra.
In a separate incident later on Monday, two people were killed by an Israeli airstrike at a beach in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The attack also wounded 27 people, according to Gaza's civil defense agency.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reported that 15-year-old Ahmad Jawad Jaber died on the way to the hospital after being shot in the chest and head during an Israeli raid on the Umm al-Sharayit neighborhood in el-Bireh, near Ramallah. Laila Ghannam, the governor of Ramallah and el-Bireh, joined mourners at the Palestine Medical Complex where the teenager's body was taken. "Today, we witnessed a clear-cut execution in broad daylight," she told AFP. She called his killing "a disgrace to all institutions who claim to uphold democracy and human rights."
Human rights group B'Tselem released a report on Monday stating that Israeli forces have killed 241 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. "The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability," said B'Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak. The report also noted that Israeli authorities have refused to return some of the children's bodies to their families.
Overall, at least 1,085 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 2023. In Gaza, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed over the same period, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry.
On Sunday, Israeli attacks killed at least four Palestinians in Gaza, including 13-year-old Eileen al-Farra, who died from shrapnel wounds after shelling in the south of the strip.
