A Palestinian young man was shot dead and another injured Thursday night when Israeli occupation forces opened fire outside the village of Kifl Hares, located west of the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank.

Ibrahim Mustafa Abu Yaqoub, 34, was shot and critically injured in the neck by occupation forces while he was at the entrance to the village, and was rushed to nearby Salfit Public Hospital, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

However, shortly after arriving at the hospital, Abu Yaqoub was pronounced dead.

The Palestinian citizen Ibrahim Mustafa Yaqoub (33 years old) who was murdered by Zionist occupation soldiers in cold blood few minutes ago, he was shot in the neck, and a friend of him was shot injured. Ibrahim and his friends were jogging inside their own village Kefl Hares pic.twitter.com/cDRyEhy1uu

— Heba Khaled (@Heba_Khaled21) July 9, 2020

A teenage boy, identified as Mohammad Abdessalam Asaad, 17, was also shot and moderately injured in the foot by the occupation forces. He was rushed to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

Isam Abu Yaqoub, mayor of Kifl Hares, said the Israeli forces opened fire at the two despite posing no threat to the lives of the soldiers. 

For his part, the Palestinian governor of Salfit, Abdullah Kmail, blamed Israeli occupation authorities, holding them fully responsible for the killing. He accused the Israeli army of fostering a “culture of impunity” among its troops.

“In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within Israel,” the Israeli rights group B’tselem reported. 

“Most of these deaths were a direct outcome of Israel’s reckless open-fire policy, authorized by the government and military and backed by the legal system,” the group added.

(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)