Mother grieves as slain Palestinian teen laid to rest

Jan. 16, 2017 5:27 P.M. (Updated : Jan. 17, 2017 10:43 A.M.)

Doctors who examined the teenager’s body at al-Hussein Hospital in Beit Jala told Ma’an they counted six bullet holes in al-Umour’s chest and lower extremities.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that “violent riots” erupted in Tuqu with “hundreds” of Palestinian youth throwing stones at Israeli border police.

“Israeli border police fired 0.22-caliber rounds towards the main instigator, resulting in his death,” the spokesperson said, adding that no Israelis were wounded during the clashes.

However, a video of the events taken by Palestinian journalist Hisham Abu Sharqah immediately after al-Umour was shot seemingly contradicted the Israeli army’s allegation that al-Umour was the “main instigator” in the clashes.

’They have destroyed me’: Mother grieves as slain Palestinian teen laid to rest
Jan. 17, 2017 8:18 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 17, 2017 9:07 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774975

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The early morning traffic began to ease as the funeral procession departed from Bethlehem’s city limits, and cars sped up on their way to the nearby village of Tuqu, in the southern occupied West Bank.

“Look, look,” said one of the drivers in the funeral procession, pointing upwards to a group of Israeli soldiers stationed on the hill just above the shared Palestinian-Israeli settler road. “They’re trying to provoke us.”

As traffic slowed for a moment, young men — residents of Tuqu where 17-year-old Qusay al-Umour
was shot dead less than 24 hours earlier — hopped out of their vehicles to grab stones from the side of the road and hurl them as far as they could at the soldiers, not knowing if one of them had shot the four fatal bullets that killed their friend.

Women and children gathered on rooftops, passersby honked their horns, and young men hung out of the windows of speeding cars waving Palestinian and Fatah flags, with pictures of al-Umour, the latest “martyr,” taped to the backs of their cars. (...)

NGO: Israeli shooting of Palestinian teen in Tuqu ’extrajudicial killing’
Jan. 18, 2017 10:50 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 11:15 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774999

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian rights group slammed on Wednesday the killing of a Palestinian teen by Israeli forces earlier this week, calling the case an “extrajudicial killing” and demanding that Israeli authorities open an investigation into the case.

Qusay al-Umour, 17, was killed during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian youth in the Bethlehem-area village of Tuqu in the occupied West Bank on Monday.

Video of the moments immediately following al-Umour being shot by Israeli forces has elicited a strong emotional response, as it showed Israeli soldiers roughly carrying the teenager’s limp body by his dangling arms and legs.

Legal NGO BADIL said in a statement on Wednesday that the footage provided “evidence contradicting Israeli accounts and raises concerns about the adherence of the Israeli forces to the central tenets of international law.”(...)

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMFIVd9Mayw

B’Tselem: January killing of Palestinian teen in Tuqu ’unjustified and unlawful’
March 8, 2017 1:53 P.M. (Updated: March 8, 2017 8:51 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=775855

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem released a report on Tuesday slamming Israeli border police’s “profound disregard” for the life of 17-year-old Qusay al-Umour , who was shot dead in January during clashes in the southern occupied West Bank village of Tuqu, calling his killing “unjustified and unlawful.”