A Palestinian young man a resident of Hura village in the Negev was shot dead before midnight on Saturday by Israeli police officers near the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem.
Local sources in the Negev identified the victim as 26-year-old Mohamed al-Osaibi from Hura village adding that he had studied medicine in Romania and recently received a license to practice the profession in Israel (1948 occupied Palestine).
The Israeli occupation police claimed in a statement that Osaibi was being questioned when he suddenly attacked a policeman grabbed his gun and fired one bullet from it before other officers opened fire at him and killed him immediately.
However eyewitnesses in the Old City of Jerusalem where the incident took place said police officers assaulted the young man and shot him after he tried to stop them from beating a Palestinian girl as they were trying to arrest her near the Aqsa Mosque’s Silsila Gate.
They denied the Israeli police claim that the young man snatched a gun from one of the officers.
Afterwards the Israeli police closed the Aqsa Mosque streets in the Old City and prevented Muslim worshipers from entering them.
Footage shared on social media showed police forces deploying heavily in the alleys and gates leading to the Mosque after the shooting.
Police officers also assaulted Palestinian vendors and storeowners in the Old City’s streets as well as Muslim worshippers who spend the night praying at the Mosque on the 10th day of the holy month of Ramadan.
The police also arrested a young man during their assault on the worshipers near the Mosque’s Silsila Gate.
In a related context Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem condemned the killing of this young man near the Aqsa Mosque as “part of the Israeli religious war being waged on the Palestinian people and their holy sites.”
The spokesman accused the occupation regime of trying to punish the Palestinians in general and the Jerusalemites in particular following their massive presence in the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards during the Friday khutba (sermon) and prayers.
