Israel extends detention of critically injured Palestinian minor

The Israeli Ofer military court yesterday extended the detention of a wounded Palestinian teenage girl for eight days, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said in a statement.

Head of the committee, Issa Qaraqe, said that the court extended 16-year-old Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa’s detention in absentia, pointing out that she remains in critical condition under anaesthetic and on respirators at the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

Taqatqa was shot and injured by Israeli forces on Wednesday at a junction near the illegal Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Etzion in the southern occupied West Bank Bethlehem district, after Israeli authorities alleged that the teen was attempting to carry out a vehicular attack.

The exact nature of her injuries remained unclear.

The Israeli army told Ma’an at the time that no Israelis had been injured in the incident.

Security camera footage of the event showed Taqatqa’s car seemingly losing control at the junction, going over the central reservation and hitting posts near a bus station.