Middle East Monitor / December 14, 2022
A far-right extremist parliamentarian in Israel has criticized the US State Departments call for “accountability” for the shooting by a soldier of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
“The comments by the American government are distressing,” Israel National News reported Itamar Ben-Gvir as saying. “I call on the residents of Jenin and the civilian population there not to leave their homes when terrorists [sic] are shooting at Israel Defence Forces [IDF] soldiers.”
The extremist MK, who is likely to be minister of national security in the next Israeli government, said that he backs the IDF soldiers and Border Police officers. “They have the right to defend themselves.”
Israeli security forces regularly shoot at houses indiscriminately during raids in Palestinian areas. The Israeli occupation army recognized that one of its snipers killed the Palestinian girl. “Following an initial inquiry, it was determined that the girl who was killed was hit by unintentional fire aimed at armed gunmen on a roof in the area from which the force was fired upon.”
On Monday, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price made the call for “accountability” following the killing of the 16 year old on Sunday night as she was sitting on the roof of her home.
“We express our profound condolences to the family of Jana Zakarneh, the young teenage girl who was killed,” said Price. “This is a tragic incident. It’s a heartbreaking incident any time you hear of a civilian being killed in these types of operations. We understand the IDF is undertaking an investigation into what happened. We hope to see accountability in this case.”
The State Department spokesman added that, “Zakarneh’s tragic death comes in the context of the escalating violence in the West Bank that we’ve noted and lamented for some time now.”
