Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh asked the UN Secretary General to put Israel on his global “list of shame” for its crimes against Palestinian children. He conveyed this message to Virginia Gamba, special representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, who was on an official visit to the occupied Palestinian territories on Monday, December 12.
Shtayyeh’s comment came following the killing of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, Jana Majid Zakarneh, by Israeli forces during a military raid in Jenin on Sunday. According to reports, Zakarneh was killed by a shot to the head and was later found dead on the roof of her house.
Last night, enemy occupation forces backed by @Joebiden @EUinIsrael @JustinTrudeau @RishiSunak @Keir_Starmer invaded Jenin and murdered 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh. Her blood is on the hands of all those accomplices and enablers of Zionist terror. https://t.co/uZdqHJsmXr
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) December 12, 2022
At least three other Palestinians were wounded in the raid. Israeli forces also claimed that they had arrested three Palestinians. Later in the evening hundreds of Palestinians participated in Zakarneh’s funeral procession.
Palestinians take part in the funeral procession of slain Palestinian girl Jana Majdi Zakarneh, 16 who was killed in cold blood last night by a live Israeli bullet in the head during an Israeli military raid on Jenin. pic.twitter.com/nbDW13SzpP
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 12, 2022
The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates issued a formal statement after Zakarneh’s killing, calling it a deliberate and criminal act. “Jana is another victim of the failure of the international community to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing and escalating crimes,” the statement read, and accused Israel of “causing trauma and insecurity to the entire Palestinian society” by “targeting children in their homes, schools, and streets.”
According to the Palestinian Authority, Zakarneh is the 53rd Palestinian child killed by Israel this year. She is also the 17th Palestinian woman or girl to be killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories since the beginning of the year. There are over a hundred Palestinian children inside Israeli prisons as well.
Israel’s impunity endangers children worldwide
The Palestinian foreign ministry also demanded accountability of “Israeli occupation forces and its settler militias” for their crimes against Palestinian children and claimed that their continued exemption “undermine[d] the protection of children worldwide.” It has demanded an international investigation into Zakarneh’s murder.
Israeli forces shot Zakarneh in the head as she stood on the roof of her house, but first denied their involvement and blamed the Palestinian gunmen for the her death.
Later, however, Israeli forces admitted that there was a “high probability” that one of their soldiers “accidentally shot and killed” Zakarneh while attempting to target “armed men on the roof in the area,” Times of Israel reported.
Jenin has seen the largest number of Israeli raids, leading to the deaths of dozens of people, since the beginning of the year. Israeli forces have carried out frequent mostly late night raids in the occupied Palestinian territories since the beginning of the year. These raids have often led to the mass arrests and killings of Palestinians.
Jenin refugee camp and Jenin city have been the main targets of these Israeli raids. At least 59 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin alone, including 15 minors, of whom Zakarneh is one. So far, 166 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2022, making it the deadliest year since 2005, as per the UN. At least 11 Palestinians have already been killed in December.
