Thursday: Israelis kill three Palestinians, the 100th, 101st and 102nd since 1 October

Yahya Taha from  Qatanna, who was killed today, is seen here praying at the grave of a relative, who was killed in August when fleeying after he attacked a soldier with a knive.  (Photo YNet)

Updated. A 19-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed in al-Arrub refugee camp in northern Hebron on Thursday during clashes, medics told Ma'an, the 3rd Palestinian to be killed during the day. Red Crescent officials said that Khalid Mahmoud al-Jawabreh, 19, was shot twice in the stomach by Israeli soldiers and later died from his injuries in the al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.
The teenager was shot during clashes in the camp between youths and armed Israeli military forces. The Arrub-camp which lies next to Road 60, which connects Hebron with Bethlehem, has been closed off for days. Ambulances had to take a long alternative route befre they reached the camp.
Earlier Thursday Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man at the Za'atar checkpoint south of Nablus, who according to reports by the Israeli army, tried to stab soldiers. No Israelis were injured. According to initial accounts, the assailant got out of a taxi at the checkpoint, located at the Tapuah junction, and ran with a knife toward soldiers shouting “Allahu akbar,” the Israeli police said.
Police launched a hunt for the taxi, according to Israel Radio, and arrested a taxi driver nearby, though it was not immediately clear if it was linked.
Yet a few hours earlier the Israelis killed a 21-year-old Palestinian when clashes broke out during an arrest raid in the town of Qatanna northwest of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The three o killed men had the dubious honor to be the 100th, 101st and 102nd Palestinians to be killed since 1 October.
Inhabitants of Qatanna said hat forces stormed the Palestinian town at dawn, ransacking homes and detaining several residents.Clashes erupted between young locals and Israeli soldiers. The forces fired live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas. Yahya Yusri Taha was shot in the head and left on the ground bleeding for more than an hour-and-a-half while Israeli soldiers denied Palestinian ambulances access to the young man to administer medical treatment.
Qatanna residents told Ma’an that hundreds of Israeli soldiers who entered the town carried out inspections house-to-house, forcibly gathering families in one room of each home while searches were underway.In some cases, family members -- including children, women and elderly members -- were forced to wait outside of their houses, locals added.
Search and arrest raids -- this year’s weekly average numbering over 80 according to UN documentation -- have increased since the beginning of last month following attempted, alleged, and actual attacks carried out by Palestinians on Israeli military and civilians.
Last month two Palestinian residents of Qatannah were shot and killed by Israeli forces following alleged attacks.
Israeli forces early Thursday seized eight buses belonging to a Palestinian transportation company in Nablus after the organization transported Palestinian youths to partake in demonstrations, local sources said.The offices of the al-Tamimi bus company were stormed, locals said, and the eight buses were transferred by Israeli forces to Huwwara military checkpoint south of the occupied West Bank city. Regular demonstrations -- often organized by local universities -- have taken place since last month near the Israeli military checkpoints that surround and control movement in and out of Nablus, leading to large-scale clashes between youth and Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow Palestinian minors under 14 who are facing terrorism charges to be sentenced to time in prison, a Knesset press release said. The bill was approved in a preliminary vote with 64 in favor of the bill and 22 against. If the bill becomes law, children under 14 would reportedly be placed in a children's home until they turn 14, after which the child would be transferred to a mainstream security prison. If passed,the law would only affect children who are citizens of Israel, as Israeli military law already allows for children from the occupied West Bank and Gaza to be placed in security prisons from the age of 12. The move is an amendment to the Youth Law, initiated and sponsored by Anat Berko, a far-right politician from the Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.