Fighter jets of the Israeli regime carried out new airstrikes against the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday evening, attacking a rehabilitation clinic and a children’s hospital there.
Two civilians, including a child, were injured.
The Islamic Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the attack against the rehabilitation clinic and children’s hospital in the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said today in response that the Zionist regime insists on committing crimes against the Palestinians.
He said that the army of the Zionist occupation regime brutally attacked the Gaza Strip. However, this crime will not break the will of the Palestinian people and they will continue to fight to gain their rights, the Hamas spokesman added.
According to Qassem, the Zionist regime’s attacks on the Gaza Strip have caused fear and panic among civilian children, and this is one of the goals of the occupying regime.
The Israeli regime’s military claimed in a statement that its fighter jets hit at least three Hamas targets on Friday night, including a military post, a factory where rockets are allegedly manufactured, and an underground facility.
The Israeli regime’s military claimed the airstrikes were in response to rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli regime’s fighter jets, drones and helicopters have attacked different parts of the Gaza Strip several times in recent months. This regime repeatedly accuses the resistance groups of firing rockets.
Israel has cleared its police of any wrongdoing in the shooting of a Palestinian child who lost an eye in an attack earlier this year.
Israeli soldiers shot a nine-year-old boy, identified as Malik Eissa, in February as he had just gotten off a school bus in the Palestinian neighborhood of Issawiya in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Israeli forces claimed at the time that they had used non-lethal weapons in response to anti-Israel protests.
The Israeli Justice Ministry said it was investigating the “sad” incident, but there were insufficient grounds for prosecution after interviewing witnesses and reviewing video footage and other evidence.
The boy, who lost vision in his left eye, has not returned to school due to serious physical and psychological problems, according to his family.
Malik finally agreed to return to school two weeks ago with a glass eye, but refused to go back after a few days because of an unpleasant incident, his father Wael Issa told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“The eye fell out in front of the students. He feels terrible,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever get justice in this system.”
He said his son suffers from constant headaches and is traumatized. Wael Issa said his family has been victims of injustice twice – first when the boy was shot and now that the investigation has been dropped.
“When my son was shot, the members of the investigation unit came to the hospital. They almost wanted to cry. They told me, ‘Don’t worry, those responsible will be held accountable,'” Wael Issa said. “But 10 months after the investigation, they decided to just close the file.”
The Israeli human rights group B’tselem said the case was “an example of whitewashing at work.”
“Each individual case is limited to a series of technical details, as if this were a unique incident rather than an open-fire policy,” it said.
It accused Israeli forces of operating within an “oppressed civilian population to enforce an occupation and annexation,” resulting in civilian casualties and impunity for those who harmed them.
Ali Ayman Nasr Abou Aliya, a 13-year-old Palestinian, was shot dead by Israeli forces on December 4, 2020, while protesting illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli forces again killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank over the weekend.
The Israeli military said it used “means to disperse riots,” including 22-caliber bullets, and military police have launched an investigation.
Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds during the 1967 Six-Day War. Since then, Palestinians have been subjected to systematic violations of their rights by Israelis.
The European Union has called for a swift investigation into the gruesome killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian by the Israeli army during protests against the occupation regime.
The EU representation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank issued the request in a tweet on Saturday.
“We would like to express our deepest condolences to the parents and family of Ali [Abu Alia]. This shocking incident must be swiftly and fully investigated by the Israeli authorities in order to bring the perpetrators to justice,” it said.
“Children enjoy special protection under international law. How many more Palestinian children will be subjected to excessive lethal force by Israeli security forces?” the delegation asked.Ali was shot in the stomach Friday during a protest against the Israeli occupation in the village of al-Mughayyir, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. He was hospitalized in Ramallah but succumbed to his injuries.
The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, also said he was appalled by the killing. “Israel must quickly and independently investigate this shocking and unacceptable incident,” he tweeted.
Israel occupied the West Bank in a war it launched against Arab countries in 1967. Since then, it has littered the area with illegal settlements.
The illegal structures now house more than 450,000 settlers against the more than 2.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank. The deaths are a routine occurrence throughout the West Bank, with daily protests against Israeli occupation and aggression.
The Western-modernized Israeli military does not hesitate to use lethal force against protesters armed only with rocks.
Palestinian factions have reacted with outrage to Friday’s killing, calling it a “war crime” and calling for solidarity among Palestinians in the face of the apartheid regime.
The West Bank-based Fatah party has called for Palestinian unity, and Hamas, a resistance group based in nearby Gaza, called for a “national consensus on the possibility of resistance to the occupation.”
by Basit Abbasi – MN