Middle East Monitor / February 5, 2020
Israeli troops shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian who was taking part in a violent protest on Wednesday against US President Donald Trump’s ‘peace plan’, witnesses and medical officials said, Reuters reports.
Mohammed al-Hadad was the first Palestinian killed in unrest since Trump unveiled his plan last week to accolades from Israel but condemnation from many in the Arab and Muslim world.
Witnesses and medical officials said al-Hadad was shot as he took part in a protest in Hebron, a Palestinian city with Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops were pelted with rocks.
The Israeli military spokesman’s office said in a statement that soldiers “identified a Palestinian who hurled a Molotov cocktail at them (and) responded with fire in order to remove the threat”.
The Palestinians, who have long shunned the Trump administration, accusing it bias towards Israel, say the Trump plan falls far short of their demands for territorial and other rights. Washington deems many of those demands unrealistic.
