Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss / January 3, 2023
Adam Ayyad, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a raid on the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. Ayyad is the third Palestinian killed by the Israeli army in 24 hours, and the first Palestinian child killed in 2023.
A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli army forces Tuesday morning in the occupied West Bank, making him the third Palestinian killed since the start of the new year.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Adam Ayyad, 15, was shot with live ammunition in the chest, and was pronounced dead early Tuesday morning at a hospital in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Ayyad was a resident of the Dheisheh refugee camp, the largest of three Palestinian refugee camps in the city of Bethlehem, and was shot during an Israeli military raid into the camp.
Locals from the camp told Mondoweiss that confrontations began shortly after 4 a.m., after Israeli special forces entered the camp in civilian vehicles, followed by a large number of military troops.
“They surrounded the home of Adnan Ajouri and detained him at around 4:30,” Hassan Manna, 32, a bakery owner and local activist from the camp told Mondoweiss. “After they arrested Ajouri, the soldiers started to retreat, and that is when the clashes started to intensify.”
Manna said that as Israeli forces began retreating from the camp, firing tear gas and sound bombs at local youth who threw rocks towards the soldiers, some of the young men began throwing Molotov cocktails towards the convoy of military jeeps.
The Israeli army and border police said that forces opened fire at a number of Palestinians who allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at them, adding that “suspects were hit.”
“The guys were trying to prevent the soldiers from taking Adnan. At the same time, as they were retreating, an Israeli sniper began firing live ammunition at the young men,” Manna said. Around the same time that Ayyad was shot in the chest, another young man, reportedly related to Ayyad, was shot in the shoulder.
Ayyad was rushed to the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital nearby where he was pronounced dead.
“The army never comes into the camp without killing someone as they leave,” Manna said. “It’s like a policy that they have. Anytime they come into the camp they kill someone. It doesn’t matter if they are a resistance fighter or a child throwing rocks, they have the order to kill.”
Ayyad is the third Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in 24 hours, and the first child to be killed in 2023. On Monday morning Israeli military forces invaded the town of Kufr Dan in Jenin and killed Fouad Mahmoud Abed, 18, and Mohammad Samer Hosheyeh, 22. Three others were injured, with one critically wounded in the chest.
2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, with 173 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the course of last year. Of those killed in 2022, three were residents of the Dheisheh refugee camp.
‘I just wish that people will wake up’
Following the killing of Ayyad, a general strike was announced in the city of Bethlehem, with shops, offices and schools shutting down early in mourning.
As an outpouring of grief took over Palestinian social media on Tuesday, Palestinians circulated photos of a hand-written letter resting atop Ayyad’s body before his funeral.
The letter, titled “My last will and testament: may God grant me resolve, victory, and martyrdom” was written by Ayyad and was reportedly found by his family in his pockets after he was killed:
I want to tell all of you that martyrdom isn’t simply death, martyrdom is an honor to yourself and to the entire world. Martyrdom is the end. It’s true that your life ends, but it ends with your happiness, and I want to send this message to the entire world, like [Ibrahim] al-Nabulsi said: ‘I just wish that the people will wake up.’
And now I’m telling you all, set your compass and point it towards the occupation, and I wish that God will accept me as a martyr, and that God will eradicate the collaborators. I hope that you will all forgive me and that you won’t forget me. I will not tell you goodbye, I will say we will meet again in heaven.
The living martyr,
Adam Ayyad”
According to Hassan Manna, Ayyad, who was an active member of the community in the camp, was deeply affected following the killing of his friend Omar Manna, 22, by Israeli forces on December 5. Omar was also shot and killed during a raid on the camp, in which Israeli forces arrested Omar’s brother.
Omar, Hassan’s cousin, worked in Hassan’s bakery along with Ayyad, who worked shifts from time to time to support his family. Ayyad was an only child.
“Adam was an only child, and his family comes from very modest means, so he used to work in the bakery to help them financially,” Manna told Mondoweiss.
“Adam was a happy kid, with an electric personality. I’m not saying he is special just because he is a martyr, but he really was a special person. You can ask anyone in the camp and they will tell you the same thing,” Manna said, going on to blame the Israeli occupation for, as he put it, forcing a childlike Ayyad to feel the need to write a will declaring his wish to become a martyr.
“Every day of the year, 365 days, we are mourning martyrs in Palestine who were killed because they were defending their homes and their communities,” he said.
“My message to the world is the same as Adam’s message,” Manna told Mondoweiss. “I want people to wake up. To wake up and see the crime of the Israeli occupation, and to recognize that we have to resist in order to obtain our freedom.”
Yumna Patel is the Palestine News Director for Mondoweiss
