Army says soldiers were attacked with IEDs, Molotov cocktails and stones during raid in Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem; incident under investigation

Yumna Patel writes in Mondoweiss:

Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the Deheisha refugee camp during a violent detention raid on Monday before dawn in the southern occupied West Bank.

The boy, identified as Arkan Mezher, was fatally shot in the chest near his heart around 4 a.m. Two more Palestinians in their mid-20s were arrested. Mezher is one of at least 28 Palestinian children killed by Israel since the beginning of the year.

Israeli soldiers were raiding the camp as part of a routine search and arrest operation, which regularly provoke confrontations with local youth from the camp,who respond to the raids by throwing stones at the armed soldiers and their military vehicles.

Locals told Mondoweiss that more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers entered the camp in at least 35 military jeeps.

“The soldiers first entered the camp around 2 a.m. They just came in shooting in every direction, live bullets, rubber bullets, tear gas, everything,” M.S. a resident of Deheisha who witnessed the incursion and asked to remain anonymous, told Mondoweiss.

According to M.S, the soldiers heavily fired tear gas at people’s homes, causing many — whose windows were open due to the hot summer temperatures — to choke. “In my house alone, on my balcony and around the house, we found around 10 tear gas canisters when we woke up in the morning,” M.S. said.

Israeli detention raids in Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps are a near-nightly occurrence.

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