NOVANEWS
Mohammed Asfour, 23, was shot in the head during protests in support of a hunger strike by four Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; he was initially treated in a Palestinian hospital and then transferred to Tel Aviv, where he died.
Haaretz
A Palestinian shot by Israel Defense Forces soldiers during a confrontation with stone-throwers in the West Bank two weeks ago died of his wounds on Thursday, his family and a hospital official said.
The incident occurred during protests in support of a hunger strike by four Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Mohammed Asfour, 23, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet. He was initially evacuated to a hospital in the West Bank town of Salfit, from where he was transferred to Nablus, and subsequently to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Asfour was unmarried and in his fourth year of university studies. His funeral will be held on Saturday in Aboud.
According to a witness giving testimony to the human rights organization B’Tselem, seven or eight young people were standing on a side street during the protests when the IDF soldiers began firing to disperse them.
“Sixty meters away stood six soldiers. When we approached them to within 40 meters, they fired tear gas grenades at us. One of the soldiers, who looked like a sharpshooter, fired a rubber bullet that hit Asfour in the head. We noticed that he didn’t move or run away when we did,” the witness said.
The widespread demonstrations that broke out across the West Bank in support of the prisoners on hunger strike intensified after the death of prisoner Arafat Jarad, a day after Asfur was hit. A senior officer in the IDF Central Command said that the level of violence and its extent surpassed anything seen in months. However, over the last week things appear to have settled down.
Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, said Asfour was one of its members. The IDF had no immediate comment on his death.
A surge in anti-Israeli violence in the West Bank over the past several weeks has raised concern in Israel that a new Palestinian uprising could erupt. The violence largely subsided last week after Israel agreed to release two of the hunger-strikers in May and they ended their protest.
There was a 70 percent increase in violent attacks by Palestinians in February compared to January, with the vast majority of the 139 incidents occurring in the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Shin Bet security service.
In the West Bank alone, the number of attacks nearly doubled in February, rising from 56 to 100. Throwing Molotov cocktails was the most common form of attack last month with 119 such incidents recorded in the West Bank and Jerusalem, up from 70 in January. The remaining acts of violence included 15 attempted bombings, two attempted stabbings, one shooting and one attempt by a driver to run down people with his vehicle.
February also saw dozens of Palestinians wounded in confrontations with Israel Defense Forces soldiers, including a 16-year-old who was seriously wounded during a violent demonstration near Rachel’s Tomb.
