Israeli settler guns down 20-year-old Palestinian

Local sources stated late on Saturday that the incident took place near the village of Sandala, south of the city of Nazareth.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency identified the Palestinian youth as 20-year-old Diyar Omari from the village of Sandala, which is located in the northern part of the occupied territories.

An online footage of the killing showed an Israeli settler engaging in a fight with Omari. As the Palestinian youth returned to his car, the Israeli settler pulled out his pistol and fired live shots directly at the young man while he was inside his own car, killing him on the spot.

According to the Arab48 website, the incident took place near the entrance to an Israeli settlement.

The Palestinian Information Center reported that following the killing, dozens of Palestinians staged a protest rally, chanting slogans in condemnation of the execution of the Palestinian youth.

The Gaza Strip-based Hamas resistance movement issued a statement following Omari’s death, asserting, “Our heroic people will not let the crimes of the occupation and its settlers go unpunished.”

Hamas said Israel’s crimes only make Palestinian people “intensify their resistance…and avenge the blood of martyr Omari, adding, “The blood of our people is not cheap, and the enemy will pay the price.”

The Islamic Jihad movement, for its part, said, “This heinous crime is an extension of the enemy’s policy against our people … for which the occupation entity bears full responsibility.”

The new fatality has increased the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the beginning of this year to over 110.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians during a raid on a refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The martyrs were both 22 years of age and died of bullet wounds to their chest, neck, and abdomen, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on legal bodies and international organizations to intervene and mount pressure on the Israeli regime over its crimes in the occupied lands.

Shtayyeh stated on Saturday night that all the atrocities that Israel commits against the Palestinian nation will be added to the case filed with The Hague-base International Criminal Court (ICC) against the usurping entity, Palestinian media reported.

The situation is tense across the occupied territories as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following recent death in Israeli custody of Khader Adnan, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, which is based in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Palestinians have been holding demonstrations in condemnation of the Israeli regime’s ill-treatment of Adnan, who died of deteriorating health conditions while staging a drawn-out hunger strike in protest at his detention.