Nihal Abu Ayash, 16, was reportedly the 100th Palestinian child to be killed in the West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October attack
Nihal Abu Ayash, 16, was reportedly the 100th Palestinian child to be killed in the West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October attack
Nihal Abu Ayash was wearing his football kit and carrying his school bag when he was shot in the head and killed after Israeli forces opened fire in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar.
“It was an execution,” said Ziad Abu Ayash, Nihal’s father. “There was no need to kill him. He didn’t have a gun, he didn’t have a tank. There is no excuse. It is a crime.”
Nihal Abu Ayash was wearing his football kit and carrying his school bag when he was shot in the head and killed after Israeli forces opened fire in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar.
Nihal was the 100th Palestinian child to be killed in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, according to the human rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
His mother, Hanan, 47, has been unable to speak or eat and his father has refused to leave the family home, where he spends hours clutching his son’s football boots.
The family said the tragedy unfolded when Israeli forces entered downtown Beit Ummar in armoured vehicles at about 12.30pm on 14 February.
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a programme director at DCIP, which documented the shooting, said “confrontations” erupted between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, who had also taken up positions on the rooftops of buildings.
On Wednesday 20 March, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East.
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