Zionist forces shoot, critically injure Palestinian toddler, father near Ramallah

A Palestinian toddler has been critically injured and his father has suffered serious wounds after Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at them near an Israeli military checkpoint northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Bilal Tamimi, a local activist, told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that Israeli forces ambushed a vehicle at the entrance to Nabi Saleh village on Thursday night.

As soon as the vehicle approached them, the soldiers opened fire on the car, injuring the two-year-old boy with a gunshot in his head and his father in his shoulder.

The little boy and his father were not in the car at the time, but in their home’s front yard which is next to an Israeli army checkpoint at the entrance to the village.

They were rushed to a hospital in the nearby illegal settlement of Neve Tsof. The toddler was later transferred to a hospital in the 1948-occupied territories for medical treatment, while the father was moved to a hospital in nearby Ramallah.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing a statement by the Israeli army, claimed that Palestinian fighters opened fire at the settlement. Israeli soldiers stationed at a nearby post then returned fire and wounded the two Palestinians as a result.

The shooting sparked protests at the entrance of Nabi Saleh.

Naji Tamimi, the head of Nabi Saleh Village Council, said Israeli soldiers closed the iron gate at the village entrance, invading several neighborhoods and firing live rounds at protesters. They injured two young Palestinian men with rubber-coated steel bullets.

One of those wounded was a local activist, who was shot while documenting the invasion using his mobile phone.

The development came only two days after more than 40 Palestinians were injured after a refugee camp on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus was raided by Israeli regime forces.

Some 46 Palestinians were treated for wounds during the raid on the Askar refugee camp which took place in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

Tensions have been running high in the occupied West Bank over the past year, with the Israeli military conducting violent raids under the pretext of detaining what it calls “wanted” Palestinians.

As a result of these attacks, at least 112 Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested in 2023.