Israel kills dad as he tries to help injured son

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Wednesday.

Falah Abu Maria, 52, was fatally shot during a house raid in Beit Ommar, a Hebron-area village in the southern West Bank, at dawn on Thursday.

After breaking into the family home, a large squad of Israeli
soldiers forced Ahmad, Falah’s eldest son, to identify his siblings for
them. Upon saying his 22-year-old brother Muhammad’s name, a soldier
shot Muhammad in the pelvis, according to an Arabic-language report at the news website Quds.

Alarmed at seeing Muhammad shot, Ahmad and his father tried to defend him from the soldiers who began firing indiscriminately.

“One of the soldiers pointed his rifle at the martyr Falah and shot
him four times directly” in the neck and chest as he attempted to help
his son, Falah’s brother, also called Muhammad, told Quds.

The soldiers pulled out after the shooting, leaving the horror they
had caused behind, Muhammad said. It was left to the family to seek
help, but by the time ambulances arrived it was too late for
Falah. Falah’s son Muhammad underwent surgery and is in stable
condition.

Falah’s wife told the Jordanian TV station Roya that
Israeli forces had raided the family home repeatedly. Beit Ommar is a
frequent target of army attacks because of regular protests villagers
hold against the theft of their land for nearby Israeli settlements.