Israeli forces shoot 14-year-old inside his home with rubber bullet

Israeli forces injured a 14-year-old Palestinian with a rubber-coated steel bullet on Friday while suppressing a weekly march in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern occupied West Bank district of Qalqiliya.

Coordinator for the village’s popular committee Murad Shteiwi said that Yousif Amer, 14, was injured with a rubber bullet in his stomach while inside his uncle’s house. Palestinians often report that Israeli forces directly aim at Palestinian homes during clashes, causing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to break through windows into homes.

Amer was taken to the Rafadiya Hospital in Nablus to receive treatment, according to Shteiwi.
Shteiwi said that locals had participated in the march on the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, in order to stress their commitment to the village’s popular resistance.

Like most weeks, clashes erupted in the town between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces. Israeli forces also raided and searched the town for specific locals and checked Palestinian ID cards.
An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports on the clashes.

Residents of Kafr Qaddum began staging weekly protests in 2011 against Israeli land confiscations, as well as the closure of the village’s southern road by Israeli forces.

The road, which has been closed for 14 years, is the main route to the nearby city of Nablus, the nearest economic center.

The Israeli army blocked off the road after expanding the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim in 2003, forcing village residents to take a bypass road in order to travel to Nablus, which has extended the travel time to Nablus from 15 minutes to 40 minutes, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been detained during the demonstrations since their start in 2011, and at least one protester was killed, while dozens have been injured by live fire, including 12 children, Shteiwi told Ma’an during a similar protest last year.