On Wednesday morning, 13 May 2020, at around 5:30 A.M., a commercial van bearing Palestinian license plates drove into the Beit Jibrin neighborhood in the eastern section of al-Fawar Refugee Camp, south of Hebron. About ten soldiers got out, and some of them took up positions on rooftops while others walked through the neighborhood. Several dozen young Palestinians, including teenagers, began to throw stones and empty bottles at the soldiers. The soldiers went over to a house to arrest an occupant and when they discovered he was not home, retreated and started walking towards the exit from the camp. The youths continued to throw stones intermittently, and the soldiers responded by hurling stun grenades and firing tear-gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and live rounds in the air.

Zeid Qaysiyah (17), who lived in a building located a few hundred meters from Beit Jibrin, was standing outside his house playing with his mobile phone. When the soldiers advanced up to about 100 meters from his home, he went up to the roof, where several of his relatives were watching the unfolding scene. The relatives warned him not to go near the edge of the roof, which is surrounded by a low wall, because an Israeli sniper was standing on a street corner nearby. Zeid did not heed their warnings. As he approached the edge of the roof to see what was going on, an Israeli sniper standing about 100 meters away shot him with a “two-two” (0.22-inch caliber) bullet.

The bullet hit Qaysiyah in the face and he collapsed instantly. He was rushed to hospital in the nearby town of Yatta and pronounced dead a short while later. In the incident, four other residents were injured by live rounds, including one minor. They were all discharged from hospital over the two weeks that followed. The military stated that one soldier had been lightly injured in the incident.

An Israeli sniper shot Zeid Qaysiyah in the head with no apparent reason, despite the fact that he posed no threat to anyone. As always, the IDF spokesperson was quick to announce that the MPIU has launched an investigation. Yet, as B’Tselem has repeatedly warned based on years of experience, these investigations are not aimed at uncovering the truth, but rather serve as part of the MAG Corps’ whitewashing mechanism. This policy enables the lethal, unlawful and immoral shooting of Palestinians to continue unchecked, as no one is held accountable – whether it is the soldiers, their commanders, those who formulate the directives or the officials who cover up the acts.

Qaysiyah’s cousin, Hadil al-Fayumi (14), a tenth-grade student, described in a testimony she gave B’Tselem field researcher Musa Abu Hashhash on 18 May 2020 what she saw when she went up to the roof of the building at around 5:30 A.M. with her sister, Asil, and her cousin, Namareq:

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Sorgente: Another military incursion into a refugee camp, another teen egregiously killed | B’Tselem

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