Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today condemned in two separate statements the Israeli army killing of a Palestinian man near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Faleh Jaradat, from the Hebron area town of Sair, was shot and killed this afternoon after he allegedly attempted to stab a soldier at an intersection near Bethlehem. The soldier was not hurt.
Shtayyeh called on international human rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop the killings and ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people.
He said the soldiers left Jaradat bleeding on the ground until he died, stressing that the extrajudicial execution of Palestinians reflects “the doctrine of state terrorism espoused by its soldiers.”
The Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, considered the killing of Jaradat another episode in the series of extrajudicial killings committed by the Israeli occupiers and their settlers against unarmed Palestinian civilians under flimsy pretexts and enforcement of the new shooting instructions approved by the political and military circles in the occupying state.
While it held the Israeli government fully responsible for “this crime,” it called on the international community, particularly the United Nations and its Secretary-General, to shoulder their responsibilities and initiate a system to protect the Palestinian people under occupation.
It also called on the United States administration to pressure Israel to stop its violent bullying of the Palestinian people.