Palestinian teenager Jana Zakarneh in Jenin was 36th minor killed by Israeli forces this year

Palestinian teenager Jana Zakarneh in Jenin was 36th minor killed by Israeli forces this year
Jana Zakarneh is the fifth member of the Zakarneh family, the 59th resident of Jenin, the 36th Palestinian child and the 224th Palestinian killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year.
5 min read
West Bank
12 December, 2022
Israeli forces have been raiding the Jenin refugee camp almost on a weekly basis in recent months. [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin observed a general strike on Monday, mourning 16-year-old teenager Jana Zakarneh who was killed late on Sunday by Israeli forces.

Zakarneh was found dead on the rooftop of her family's house following an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp, in which Israeli forces also wounded one Palestinian and arrested three.

"The occupation forces raided the camp around 10:00 pm and placed snipers on high buildings surrounding the camps," Atta Abu Rmeileh, local secretary of the Palestinian 'Fatah' faction, told The New Arab.

"Soon they were engaged by fighters from the camp with gunfire while the occupation snipers shot into the camp from surrounding buildings," he described.

"One resident was wounded with more than seven bullets in his feet and legs, and there is unconfirmed news of a second wounded," he pointed out. "Jana was found by her family after the raid was over, killed with four bullets, on the rooftop of their house."

"Jana was a very polite, smart, and hard-studying girl," her uncle described to TNA.

"She had many friends, was joyful, and dreamed of going to the university and continuing her studies," he added. "She had a promising future ahead and her death is such a loss that her parents are still in a state of shock, unable to speak to the media."

"When the raid was at its peak and confrontations with fighters intensified, I told several youngsters from the family to stay away from the windows and take cover inside the house," the uncle said. "No one knew that Jana was on the rooftop taking pictures of the raid."

"The last picture on Jana's phone was of the occupation forces, taken at 10:20 pm," he noted. "We found her dead with one bullet in the head, another in the chest, another in the neck and another one in the jaw."

According to the family, the Palestinian liaison office, the Palestinian authority's entity coordinating civil affairs with Israeli occupation authorities, informed them that the Israeli army denied their responsibility for Jana's death.

Israeli media quoted the Israeli army claiming that its troops "might have accidentally killed" Jana Zakarneh. Israeli reports further said that the Israeli army "was investigating whether Zakarna was misidentified while observing troops from the rooftop".

Israeli media reports also said that Israeli troops had fired towards rooftops during confrontations with Palestinian fighters.

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Zakarneh's funeral was postponed to Monday afternoon, as her family took her body to the university hospital of Nablus for autopsy. A spontaneous march took place in the streets of Jenin, carrying her body wrapped in a Palestinian flag.

Jana Zakarneh is the fourth Palestinian from Jenin killed by Israeli forces in five days after three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on Jenin on Thursday.

The three killed in Jenin on Thursday included another member of the Zakarneh family, Sudqi Zakarneh, who was killed while confronting raiding forces alongside another fighter, Tareq Damaj, and a civilian who was on his way to work, Atta Shalabi.

Jana Zakarneh is the fifth member of the Zakarneh family, the 59th resident of Jenin, the 36th Palestinian child and the 224th Palestinian killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year.

Jenin / Qassam Muaddi
the Jenin refugee camp is a target of regular raids by the Israeli army, claiming the lives of 59 Palestinians in 2022. [ Qassam Muaddi /TNA]

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the PLO's executive committee, Hussein Al-Sheikh, condemned the killing of Jana Zakarneh, calling for an immediate investigation into her death.

"Jana Zakarneh is a victim of the occupation's brutality in Jenin," said Al-Shaikh in press remarks on Monday. "Her blood exposes the occupation's continuous crimes that spare nothing."

On Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called upon the international community "to provide international protection for the Palestinian people in light of Israeli settlers and soldiers aggressions".

Shtayyeh made his call during a meeting in Ramallah with Lynn Hastings, the UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Palestine, whose Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -OCHA has been documenting violations against Palestinians since 2005.

In late October, the UN said that 2022 might be the deadliest year for Palestinians since OCHA began to document violations against Palestinians 17 years ago.