Pa Slams Killing Of Palestinian Teen İn E. Jerusalem

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday denounced the killing of a Palestinian teenager by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem.



"This crime is testament to the hideousness of the [Israeli] occupation," the PA said.



"It is testament to its [Israel's] crimes against the unarmed people of Palestine and its fabrication of baseless excuses to justify such crimes," it added in a statement.



Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli security forces at a checkpoint separating East Jerusalem from the Israeli side.



Police spokesperson Luba Samri said in a statement that the teenager was shot after running toward an Israeli checkpoint carrying a knife.



But the teenager's father cast doubt on the story of the Israeli police spokesperson.



"Police say the boy ran toward the checkpoint waving a knife, but I told them that if someone wants to stab another, he doesn't wave his knife," the father said. "Rather, this person will hide the knife and use it once he reaches the target," he added.



He said Israeli police insisted not to hand the boy's body over to the family before making sure that a small number of mourners would attend his funeral.



Eyewitnesses told The Anadolu Agency, meanwhile, that Israeli police had raided the home of the alleged attacker in al-Tor town in East Jerusalem and confiscated some of his belongings.



Recent months have seen an uptick in violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, which has led to deaths and injuries on both sides.



Several Israelis have been killed or injured amid increasingly frequent Palestinian attacks.



Israeli forces, meanwhile, continued to carry out raids on West Bank villages, frequently rounding up groups of young Palestinian men on claims they are "wanted" by Israeli authorities.



Israeli troops also typically use force to disperse weekly Palestinian demonstrations against the self-proclaimed Jewish state's decades-long occupation, which occasionally leads to fatalities among protesters.



Palestinians, meanwhile, decry frequent attacks by extremist Jewish settlers on their communities and property in the occupied territories.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ramallah