A Palestinian teenager was killed on Wednesday May 13 by the Israeli army in clashes in the southern occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Minister of Health said shortly after the US Secretary of State's arrival in Israel Mike Pompeo for a quick visit.
Zaïd Qaysia, 15, was shot dead in the head by Israeli soldiers in Al-Fawar camp near Hebron, a spokesman for the Palestinian ministry told AFP. four other Palestinians were injured in the clashes. Soldiers entered the refugee camp before dawn to make arrests, causing clashes, residents said.
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The incident comes the day after the death of an Israeli soldier in the north of the West Bank, killed by a Palestinian stone throw during a nighttime army operation that arrested Palestinian suspects. A few hours later, a knife attack had been foiled at the Qalandiya military crossing, between Israel and the center of the West Bank.
It also occurs on the day of the visit of the American diplomatic chief Mike Pompeo, who arrived in the morning at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. He is due to hold talks in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former electoral rival Benny Gantz, before the inauguration Thursday of the new union government formed after an agreement between the two Israeli politicians.
Read also: UN warns of Israeli annexation of West Bank areas
The American official must discuss with them the implementation of President Donald Trump's Middle East plan, presented last January, which notably provides for the annexation by Israel of the Jordan Valley and of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. The union government must present from July 1 a roadmap for following up on this plan criticized by the Palestinians, from secular Fatah to the Islamists of Hamas. Iran, enemy N.1 of the Hebrew State, and the pandemic of new coronavirus will also be discussed.
By going to Jerusalem, Pompeo, whose first trip in almost two months, becomes one of the first senior officials of a great power to resume international travel despite the pandemic.
