Settler runs over, shoots and kills 16-year-old Palestinian in Nablus

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768950

22 November 2015     Maan News Agency

Photo of the scene taken from social media.(note the ubiquitously placed knife in such killings.Ed)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A prominent Israeli settler ran over a 16-year-old Palestinian girl and then shot her dead, saying that he believed she intended to carry out a stabbing attack at Huwarra checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, Israeli media reported.

The Palestinian military liaison office identified the teenager as Ashraqat Taha Ahmad Qatanani from Nablus, and said they had notified her family of their daughter's death.

Israeli news site Ynet identified the man who ran over and shot Qatanani as Gershon Mesika, the former head of the "Samaria regional council," which represents Israel's illegal settlements in the northern West Bank.

After running the girl over with his car and landing in a ditch, Mesika reportedly got out of his car and opened fire on the girl, alongside Israeli forces who also opened fire, Israeli media reported. (known as 'confirming the kill', used often by the IDF and senior officials against obviously unthreatening Palestinian children -Ed) 

An Israeli army spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked for comment.

No Israelis were reported injured in the alleged attack (or even arrested for such an obvious act of murder-Ed)

Photo of the scene taken from social media.

The girl's death was the second violent incident in 24 hours.

On Saturday evening, a Palestinian, identified as Muhammad Shaker al-Tarda,18, stabbed and wounded four Israelis, including a 13-year-old girl, in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, before being arrested hours later, Israeli police said.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said at the time that an Israeli man was seriously wounded and two women and a 13-year-old girl moderately wounded in what he described as a "confirmed terrorist attack," which took place on the city's King David Street.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli police said that a mob of Israeli civilians violently beat and bound the hands of a Palestinian Bedouin man they incorrectly believed was the attacker.

The four Israelis and the Bedouin were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

Two days earlier, four Israelis and one Palestinian were killed in two separate attacks in Tel Aviv and the illegal settlement bloc of Gush Etzion in the southern West Bank. The Palestinian attackers were afterwards arrested.

The attacks have accompanied a wave of popular unrest that has swept the the occupied Palestinian territory since the beginning of October.

While Israelis have sought to blame the unrest on religious incitement, Palestinians have pointed to the nearly 50-year military occupation of the Palestinian territory, no prospect of a political solution, and a deep sense of frustration and despair.

At least 86 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the period -- many shot dead under circumstances in which rights groups said that Israeli forces used unnecessary force -- while at least 16 Israelis have been killed in the same period.

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NOV. 20, 2015 4:39 P.M. (UPDATED: NOV. 21, 2015 12:03 P.M.)