The US State Division on Monday urged Israel to analyze the demise of a 17-year-old American citizen within the West Financial institution final week.
Tawfiq Ajak, 17, was fatally shot on Friday close to the village of al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, northeast of Ramallah.
“Now we have known as for an pressing investigation to find out the circumstance of his demise,” State Division spokesman Vedant Patel instructed reporters at a briefing in Washington on Monday.
The US is “devastated concerning the killing” and is continuous to “have interaction intently with the federal government of Israel to determine as a lot info as attainable,” Patel mentioned. He added that the top of the US Workplace of Palestinian Affairs has visited Ajaq’s household to supply condolences and the embassy in Jerusalem will “proceed aiding” them.
Tawfiq was born and raised close to New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved to the West Financial institution final yr together with his dad and mom and 4 siblings, to reconnect with their Palestinian heritage, in line with Al Jazeera.
His cousin Joe Abdel Qaki instructed AJ that Tawfiq was grilling within the subject outdoors the village when he was shot, as soon as within the head and as soon as within the chest. He died on the best way to the hospital. In accordance with Abdel Qaki, Israeli troopers requested him and different Palestinians who tried to succeed in Tawfiq to point out them their papers, delaying the rescue.
Tawfiq Hafez Tawfiq Ajaq, 17, a U.S. citizen, was killed yesterday as an Israeli settler and Israeli forces opened fireplace on his automobile within the occupied West Financial institution. It stays unclear whether or not the settler or a soldier fired the bullet that struck him within the head. https://t.co/KNXxMRoeqjpic.twitter.com/nYEULLlWCM
— Protection for Kids (@DCIPalestine) January 20, 2024
“Tawfiq is an American baby who was chased and shot at by an Israeli settler, then Israeli forces pulled up and continued capturing,” Miranda Cleland from the nonprofit Protection for Kids Palestine, mentioned on X (previously Twitter).
Israeli police mentioned they’d acquired a report of a “firearm discharge, ostensibly involving an off-duty regulation enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian.” They didn’t determine the shooter, however observe that the people focused “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing actions alongside Freeway 60.”
At his son’s funeral on Saturday, Hafez Ajaq was livid that he as an American taxpayer was footing the invoice for Israeli “killer machines” to “kill our personal kids.”
Some 369 Palestinians – 95 of them minors – have been killed within the West Financial institution since October final yr, when Israel declared an all-out conflict in opposition to Hamas. The Gaza-based armed group had killed round 1,200 Israelis in close by settlements in a collection of raids on October 7. Since then, virtually 25,000 Palestinians within the enclave have been killed, in line with native well being authorities.
Whereas South Africa has accused Israel of genocide earlier than the Worldwide Court docket of Justice, White Home spokesman John Kirby instructed reporters final week that the US didn’t have “any indications that there’s deliberate efforts to commit conflict crimes” by the Israeli army.
