Palestinian gunman killed by Israeli forces near Ramallah was previously injured at 2015 protest

Palestinian gunman killed by Israeli forces near Ramallah was previously injured at 2015 protest
Qais Shijaiyah, a 23-year-old Palestinian who opened fire on a settlement near Ramallah, had previously been shot and arrested by Israeli soldiers at a 2015 protest, his family said.
4 min read
West Bank
15 October, 2022
"Qais dreamed of starting a family, but he had a bigger dream to live in a free country", his father said [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

Israeli forces late on Friday killed a Palestinian who had opened fire at the Israeli settlement of Beit El, north of Ramallah.
 
The Palestinian health ministry gave his identity as 23-year-old Qais Shijaiyah from the village of Deir Jarir north east of Ramallah.
 
Israeli media quoted the Israeli army as saying that Shijaiyah had opened fire at the settlement along a second Palestinian, from a nearby hill.

 
According to Israeli reports, one Israeli settler was injured and taken to hospital, while Shijaiyah was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces later arrested the second Palestinian, 19-year-old Mohammed Odeh, according to Haaretz
 
Shijaiyah had taken part in protests against Israeli occupation during a 2015 uprising in the West Bank.
 
Video footage circulated on social media of Shijaiyah being shot then arrested by Israeli soldiers in that year, while protesting at the northern entrance of Ramallah, near the Beit El settlement where he was killed on Friday.
 
Family sources confirmed to The New Arab Shijaiyah’s identity in the footage, and said that at the time he was arrested and interrogated inside the Beit El settlement.

"Qais was a simple young man with a strong personality", his father told The New Arab. "He dreamed of one day owning his own house and starting a family, but he had a bigger dream; to live in a free country," he added.
 
Late on Friday, following the killing of Shijaiyah, Israeli forces closed the entrance to his hometown Deir Jarir, Shijaiyah, and closed a vital main road to the north-east Ramallah area, isolating Deir Jarir and a dozen more villages.

Early on Saturday, Israeli forces also raided Deir Jarir and arrested four people from Shijaiyah's family. Local young people confronted the Israeli soldiers with stones, while the latter fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, according to the residents. No injuries were reported.

Deir Jarir / Qassam Muaddi
Israeli forces raided the hometown of Qais Shijaiyah on Saturday morning, arrested four people from his family and fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. No injuries were reported [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

 
The killing of Shijaiiyah came a day after Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp, during a military raid.
 
One of them was Abdallah Abu Teen, a doctor in his forties and a father of two.

He was on his way to treat wounded protesters and killed in front of the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin.
 
“Doctor Abdallah was a very dedicated physician, always present at the hospital whenever injuries were brought in during Israeli raids”, a close friend of the family told The New Arab, asking not to be named.
 
“He and his wife had a calm comfortable life, raising their two children in a relatively safe atmosphere, away from the daily violence of the occupation, which is very rare in Palestine and Jenin”, the family friend added.
 
“Yet, Doctor Abdallah chose to be present in the refugee camp, helping people and taking part in social activities, spending hours at the Ibn Sina hospital where most injuries from the camp are brought, outside of his working hours”, they added.

 
Israeli media circulated images of Abdallah Abu Teen bearing weapons, suggesting that he was killed while taking part in the confrontations with the raiding Israeli forces.
 
The local secretary of the Palestinian Fatah faction in the Jenin refugee camp, Atta Abu Rmeileh, confirmed to Palestinian media on Friday that Abdallah Abu Teen was member of the regional Fatah leadership in Jenin, and was responsible for the ‘resistance portfolio’ in the local Fatah secretariat.
 
Abu Rmeileh also said that Abu Teen “was killed while fighting the occupation forces, defending the Jenin hospital”, adding that “it is the right of every Palestinian to fight the occupation”.
 
The killings of Qais Shijaiyah and Abdallah Abu Teen arrive in the midst of an escalation of confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, that has so far claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians since the beginning of 2022, according to the Palestinian health ministry.