Fifteen-year-old
Muheeb Ahmad Assi was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot by
an Israeli security guard, according to Mohammad Hawani of the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Ram Allah.
Hawani said Assi died of a bullet wound to his chest.
Witnesses
said clashes broke out between Assi's group of friends and an
Israeli security guard near a part of the separation barrier in
the village of Beit Lakiya, where he lived.
The guard shot at them with live ammunition, and Assi was hit.
Palestinians
were not allowed near the boy until over a hour had passed, by
which point he had bled to death, doctors said.
Assi was the son of Ahmed Assi, the village's head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall.
Earlier, in the West Bank village of Biilin, 18 people were injured when clashes broke out during a protest held against Isreal's separation barrier.
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Eighteen people were injured in
the protests on Friday |
Ramzi Yassin, 22, was in a critical condition after a rubber-coated metal bullet hit his head.
He sustained internal bleeding, according to doctors at the Ram Allah Government Hospital.
A
second Palestinian, Yunis Husain, 21, was in a stable condition after a
rubber-coated metal bullet was removed from his stomach during
surgery, hospital officials told Aljazeera.net.
Witnesses at the protest confirmed the account.
Injuries
"After Friday prayers, Palestinian shabab (youth) began throwing stones at soldiers off the side of the demonstration.
"Twenty
minutes later, the soldiers began using tear gas, rubber bullets, sound
bombs, and stones were thrown again. Eighteen people were
injured," said a rights activist Linda M, who asked her full
identity be concealed for security reasons.
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"We try to use new methods of resistance and try to carry the message to regular Israelis to show them that we don't hate them"
Abdallah Abo-Rahma,
founder of the Popular Committee Against the Wall |
The demonstration comes on the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that declared Israel's separation barrier illegal.
After
Israeli courts refused appeals to prevent the wall's construction, the
Palestinians of Biilin – along with Israeli and foreign activists -
began peacefully protesting against the confiscation of their land.
They have held over 45 non-violent demonstrations since February 2005.
Friday's
demonstration was attended by Palestinian parliament representatives
and ministers, Israeli Knesset members, representatives from the
Palestinian National and Islamic parties, along with international and
Israeli supporters.
"Our message, simply, is 'no to the barrier' ", Abd Allah Abu-Rahma, founder of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Biilin told Aljazeera.net.
Non-violent protests
Biilin has become famous for its non-violent demonstrations against the wall.
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Last week protesters showed how
the village is becoming a prison |
Last week, protesters placed themselves in mock cages to symbolise how their village was becoming a big prison.
"Every
protest has to have a goal and a new theme so the world can see that
there is a small village in Ram Allah whose land is being annexed and
that it is being oppressed.
"We
try to use new methods of resistance and try to carry the message to
regular Israelis to show them that we don't hate them: I am a
Palestinian who does not hate human beings, only oppression and
occupation," said Abu-Rahma, who has been detained by the Israeli
secret service for his involvement in the protests.
Livelihood destroyed
Abu-Rahma
says the wall is destroying the village's very livelihood, and
accuses the Israeli government of following a policy of
indirect transfer of the villagers to make room for new settlements.
"The
wall is a catastrophe that has fallen on our village, and on our
people, as a whole. It takes half the land of our village. Our village
is small, so when it takes half the land, there is not much left. The
only land we have left is the land with our houses on it," he said.
The wall will isolate more than 60% of the lands of Biilin, if completed, according to the Popular Committee Against the Wall.