Alwaght-Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has condemned the Israeli regime forces for murdering two innocent Palestinians.
On Wednesday Israeli regime troops shot and killed a 24-year old pregnant Palestinian woman and her 16-year-old brother on claims that they tried to carry out a stab attack on border police at Qalandiya military checkpoint. The Palestinians were identified as mother of two Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, and her brother Ibrahim.
Hamas leader Abdul Rahman Shadid called on “intifada activists to exact a price from occupation forces for the crime in Qalandiya, and to deter the occupation from shedding more Palestinian blood.”
Witnesses to the incident say the siblings were not carrying knives, and that the Israeli officer who first opened fire on Maram was stationed some 20 meters away behind a concrete block, arguing the two posed no threat at the time that they were shot down.
Israeli officers reportedly unloaded at least 15 rounds into Maram’s body during the incident, according to witnesses. Like in most such incidents, no Israelis were injured thus confirming reports that the shootings are unprovoked acts of state-sponsored terrorism.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ cabinet also condemned the killing of the two siblings and denounced the silence of the international community following the Israeli crime, government spokesman Yousef Mahmoud said in a press release.
“There is nothing that can justify the crime that has been committed against a pregnant mother and her brother,” Yousef said, adding that the Israeli regime has a “mafia-like mentality.”
Tensions have been running high in the West Bank after Israel’s imposition in August 2015 of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The mosque in East al-Quds is the third holiest site in Islam.
Nearly 215 Palestinians, including children and women, have been killed by Israeli forces since the outbreak of tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories last October. Some 30 Zionists, mostly Israeli regime troops, have also lost their lives in Palestinian revenge attacks.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently said that it was “human nature” for Palestinians to react violently to Israel’s decades-long military occupation, and urged change in Israel’s policies in the occupied territories.
