RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Nablus - 22 July 2023. Palestinians stand next to a bullet-ridden car in which a Palestinian was killed late by Israeli forces, in an incident described by the army as a "car ramming attempt" in the town of Sebastia near Nablus in the West Bank

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Eyewitness Medhat Kayed

STORYLINE:

The Israeli soldiers shooting and killing of a Palestinian teenager in the town of Sebastia, in the north of the West Bank, is a premeditated killing, today charged the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.

Fawzi Hani Makhalfeh, 18, was killed and Mohammad Mukheimar was wounded and arrested after Israeli soldiers last night opened fire at a car with two Palestinian teenagers inside in Sebastia.

“The firing of a hail of bullets at the vehicle they were traveling in reflects the magnitude of hatred, aggression, racism, and premeditated killing, which makes every Palestinian vehicle suspicious to the occupation soldiers a target that can be shot at and killing whoever is inside it,” said the Ministry in a statement.

It held the Israeli government fully responsible for what it described as “the heinous crime of execution” its soldiers have committed in Sebastia, calling for an international investigation into it and “bringing the perpetrators and those behind them to justice.”

Sebastia has an ancient archeological site which the Israeli military seeks to seize from the Palestinians and assume full control over it.