On Sunday night (11/12/2022) the family of the Palestinian child Jana Zakerneh rushed to the roof of their home. They were searching for their daughter. They found her bloodstained and dead brutally murdered by an Israeli sniper.
“Jana went up to put her cat in the carrier which she used to use for keeping her cat safe during the nights but we found her lying beside her cat and the carrier” Jana’s uncle says. The 16-year-old Jana was sniped by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) during a military raid on the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. “Jana was shot at with 10 Israeli bullets. 4 of them hit her two in her face and two in her chest.”
She was left bleeding for half an hour and the family finally discovered her after the occupation army withdrew from the town 20 minutes later. “She used to go on the roof for playing and enjoying her time like all the Palestinian children” says her uncle Salah. In Palestine the rooftops of houses constitute a very important place in the home where they can gather and have fun. However the concept of the roofs of the houses has changed since the beginning of the occupation transforming them into a source of terror for the Palestinians from a place for meditation relaxation children’s play and laughter to a place that poses danger to life. Many families forbid their children to climb to the rooftops particularly during times of heightened confrontation with the IOF. The rooftops of the houses often become direct targets for the occupation’s snipers and missiles or platforms for them to set up their weapons to aim at the resistance fighters and anyone who moves as what happened with Jana.
Because she did not have a sister Jana liked to care for her cat whom she had named Lolo. Jana was deeply attached to her cat and when she heard that the occupation forces were raiding Jenin she went to protect her cat. But she had no one to protect her from the occupation.
“She was an ambitious child she liked painting and writing. She was talented and an excellent student in her school who was always helpful to her classmates” says her family.
The occupation army has claimed responsibility for the killing of Jana claiming it to be “unintentional.” Her uncle comments on the occupation army’s statement: “It is one of their biggest lies as Jana was standing on the roof and the Israeli snipers who have advanced weapons that could recognize their targets were positioned on a nearby higher building than Jana’s house.”
The occupation claims that they don’t seek to harm uninvolved civilians including those who are in a combat environment and in close proximity to armed Palestinian fighters. But Jana’s incident wasn’t a lone killing. Just last Thursday the Israeli bullets shot dead the 16-year-old Dia’ Rimawi in Aboud village northwest of Ramallah in the central part of the West Bank. According to eyewitnesses the IOF refused to allow Palestinian medics to approach him and he was left bleeding to death on the ground. This past spring the slaying of journalist Shireen Abu Aqla in Jenin received international attention highlighting the ongoing killing of civilians in proximity to combat zones by the Israeli military yet despite international attention to this case the killings continue. The number of Palestinian children murdered by IOF gunfire since the beginning of this year has reached 56 including 15 from Jenin the most recent of whom was the child Jana. This murder spree is the most pernicious by the occupation forces against the Palestinians in the West Bank since 2015.
This atrocity coincided with the visit of UN envoy Virginia Gamba to the West Bank to verify crimes committed by the occupation soldiers against Palestinian children in preparation for submitting the results to the United Nations. A general strike was announced in Jenin on Monday morning (12/12/2022) in mourning of the slain Jana calling for stopping the continuous Israeli crimes against Palestinians and in particular against children.
– Wafa Aludaini is a Gaza-based journalist and activist. She contributed this article to the PIC.
