A Palestinian child and his uncle suffered bullet injuries on Monday morning when Israeli soldiers opened fire at them before detaining them in Jiftlik village in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho.
Chief of the village municipal council Ahmed Ghawanmeh said that soldiers stormed a house in the village and opened fire at a 16-year-old child and his uncle.
Ghawanmeh added that the child Hamadah Atawneh was critically injured in his waist area while his uncle Aziz Atawneh suffered a moderate bullet injury.
The Israeli occupation forces also went on the rampage through the village ransacking other homes and brutalizing local residents.
The Jordan Valley is home to over 20 Palestinian population centers located entirely in Area C. In August 2013 al-Jiftlik – with a population more than 3700 in 2007 – was the only village in the Jordan Valley to have master plans drafted and approved by the Israeli occupation authority.
According to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem at the time of their approval the boundaries of these plans encompassed only 60 percent of the built-up area of the village leaving 40 percent of the village’s buildings at risk of demolition.
Israeli planners did not earmark any land for public buildings did not permit paving roads and left no areas vacant for future construction and development.
According to B’Tselem’s data since 2005 the Israeli army’s civil administration has demolished at least 11 residential units in al-Jiftlik built before the village’s master plan was drafted. As a result of the demolitions 133 people including at least 50 children were rendered homeless. The last five of these buildings were demolished on January 24 2013 leaving 34 people including 18 children without a roof over their heads. In addition the civil administration also demolished dozens of agricultural structures on village land.
