Washington confirmed on Friday that a Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli troops was a US citizen — the second time this week a US child has been killed in the ongoing conflict.
The army said that the youth killed on Friday had been about to hurl a Molotov cocktail at Israeli drivers near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
An Israeli Defense Force (IDF) spokeswoman said troops at the village of Silwad in the occupied territory spotted a person about to hurl a gasoline bomb.
“The forces fired immediately to neutralize the danger... and confirmed a hit,” she said.
Palestinian officials named the youth as Orwa Hammad, 17, saying he was shot during a stone-throwing protest against troops, a regular occurrence at Silwad, near the Ofra settlement.
The US “expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a US citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces,” US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Calling for “a speedy and transparent investigation,” Psaki said officials from the US consulate in Jerusalem were in touch with the family of the slain youth.
“We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Psaki said.
Locals in Silwad said Hammad’s father lives in the US.
Also on Friday, police in annexed east Jerusalem clashed with Palestinians, firing tear gas to disperse stone-throwing protesters. They were deployed in force ahead of weekly Muslim prayers as the army restricted access to a flashpoint mosque, after a deadly Palestinian attack sent tensions soaring.
There were also clashes in east Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood, where photojournalists saw police fire bursts of tear gas to break up a crowd of Palestinians who hurled rocks and burned tires.
There were no reports of injuries on either side.
A state of emergency came into force Saturday across much of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing by suspected militants.
It was the deadliest attack on the country’s security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year, to the fury of his supporters.
The state of emergency, which took effect from 3am in the north and center of the Sinai, will remain in place for three months, the president’s office said.
A curfew is in force from 5 pm to 7 am.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number