The Israeli army initially admitted, Monday, that it “accidentally” shot a Palestinian girl in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing her after she was shot in the head.
Earlier, the Israeli army said in a statement, of which Anadolu Agency received a copy, that it was “investigating the circumstances of the killing of Jana Zakarneh (16 years old), while she was on the roof of her house in Jenin last night.”
However, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority said, on Monday: “A preliminary investigation conducted by the Israeli army showed that a force fired on the roof where the girl was standing, after a bullet was detected from the area.”
And she added, “At this stage, the Israeli army has not yet reached any conclusive conclusions in the investigation of the incident.”
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The authority said: “The Israeli army is investigating whether she was shot while observing activity in the eastern neighborhood of the city from the roof of a house.”
She added that the Israeli army is investigating “whether she was standing next to armed men and was mistakenly identified as a suspect, or whether she was standing on a low roof and accidentally entered the line of fire when they fired over her.”
And the authority continued: “The Israeli army does say that the girl was inside the battlefield and it is very likely that she was shot by security forces.”
The Israeli army said in its statement that it had arrested 3 Palestinians during the storming of Jenin last night.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in a statement, “Jana Majdi Issam Zakarneh was martyred, after she was hit by a bullet in the head fired by the occupation soldiers during the storming of the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, on Sunday evening.”
Also on Sunday evening, the Anadolu Agency correspondent reported, quoting local sources, that an Israeli special force stormed the eastern neighborhood to arrest one of the wanted young men, and clashes broke out with Palestinian gunmen, in the “Bayader” area.
For months, the West Bank has been witnessing a significant escalation in tension against the backdrop of renewed clashes between the Israeli army and settlers on the one hand, and the Palestinians on the other.