US Congresswoman Betty McCollum has denounced the fatal shooting of a Palestinian child by Israeli forces in the West Bank as a “grotesque state-sponsored killing.”
“Yesterday’s death of a 15 year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank by an Israeli soldier who shot the child in the abdomen is a grotesque state-sponsored killing,” McCollum told MEE in a statement on Saturday.
“This senseless incident must be condemned as a direct result of Israel’s permanent military occupation of Palestine.
“I urge the incoming Biden Administration to fully investigate and verify to the American people that no US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel provided material assistance enabling this taking of a child’s life,” the Congresswoman concluded.
Israeli soldiers shot Palestinian 13-year-old Ali Abu Aalya in the stomach during a protest near his village of al-Mughayir in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday. He later succumbed to his wounds.
The Palestinian Presidency condemned the Israeli murder of the child and called on the international community to work to provide protection for the Palestinian people, end the occupation and help the Palestinians establish an independent state of their own with East Jerusalem as its capital.
