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Jenin and the nearby Jenin refugee camp have become a hub for the Palestinian armed resistance in the West Bank, since September last year when the Jenin Brigades emerged on the scene. Since this time, raids have become a routine part of life for residents in Jenin, where the Palestinian resistance continue to confront the Zionist regime's gunmen in order to repel assassination and arrest attempts.

Last Sunday was no different, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city from multiple angles and were met with Palestinian gunfire. According to statements issued by the occupation army, their goal was to arrest a number of Palestinians, three of whom were allegedly connected to the resistance. In order to combat the Palestinian resistance, the Israeli army used a large number of units, tens of military vehicles, an undercover special forces unit, and set snipers on rooftop positions. 

Despite "Israel’s" best efforts, no Palestinian resistors were killed in the onslaught, instead only 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh, a young girl from Jenin who was shot at least four times and left lying dead on the roof of her parent’s home. Her father had recalled that she had wandered onto the roof, attempting to get her cat, and never returned. According to Palestinian health authorities, her death was officially caused by a gunshot wound to the back of her head. 

When the story emerged, the Israeli military acknowledged the reports and initially claimed that an investigation was underway. This was followed by claims from Zionists on social media that Palestinian gunmen may have accidentally killed Jana, the same tactic used following the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh back in May. "Israel" routinely attempts to blame its most heinous criminal action on the Palestinian resistance; this is likely done with the intent of sowing division between Palestinians and their political movements/parties. During the three-day Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip this August, during which the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement was singled out, the Zionist regime lied about a number of incidents when it had launched airstrikes against civilians and attempted to blame the killings on PIJ misfired rockets.

Although in the case of Jana Zakarneh, the claims from Zionist activists online were not repeated by Israeli officials, as was true during the aftermath of the Shireen Abu Akleh assassination, this is clearly a new tactic that the Zionist regime is using against Palestinians. Unfortunately, following the death and destruction wrought against the Gaza Strip in August, some Palestinians were even fooled by the claims that the majority of children killed during the battle between PIJ and "Israel", were in fact killed as a result of misfired rockets. The most egregious of the massacres committed by "Israel" was later admitted to by the Zionist regime's military officials, when they spoke to Haaretz news about the issue. "Israel" had launched a strike against the Falluja cemetery in Jabalia refugee camp, killing 5 children. After interviewing the families of the victims, I discovered that the internal investigation inside the Gaza Strip had revealed that the shrapnel from the explosion, removed from the children's bodies, bore Hebrew writing and the munition was determined to have come from an attack drone.

The US government has consistently covered up for the Zionist regime, earlier this year producing a biased report which whitewashed the murder of US citizen Shireen Abu Akleh. The report, issued by the State Department claimed to have determined the intent of the potential Israeli killer, without even stating that it could determine who the shooter was or if they were an Israeli soldier. This then gave the Zionist regime its get-out-of-jail-free card. Following the Israeli attack on Gaza in August, the US’s spokeswoman to the United Nations repeated Israeli claims about misfired PIJ rockets that again gave Tel Aviv cover.

This year has been the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005 when the UN officially began keeping count of the casualties. Not a single murder, of over 166 Palestinians, has been properly investigated, leading to the culprit being held accountable. The US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, commented on the murder of Jana Zakarneh, stating that "We understand the IDF is undertaking an investigation into what happened. We hope to see accountability in this case," which is not a real call for accountability.

The statement issued on behalf of the US Biden administration is very similar, in terms of rhetoric, to that of the statements issued in the wake of the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh. This weak statement is a green light for "Israel" to swipe the crime under the rug yet again, worded as to not encourage this to be done as often. It is clear that these sorts of war crimes are a nuisance for the United States, but never something it would work to hold Tel Aviv accountable for, even when an American citizen is the victim. 

Earlier this year the US government even attempted to pressure "Israel", in a very kind and suggestive way, to look into changing its "Open Fire Policy" which was amended in late 2021, allowing for Israeli soldiers to shoot-to-kill Palestinians that do not pose active threats to Israelis. The response from the Zionist regime was not only that of ignoral, but outright rejection and outrage that Washington would dare challenge its policy. Since then, the US has attempted to hold to this position in words only, but refuses to actually apply any pressure. 

The story is the same every time, the US is annoyed that it has to deal with discussing the Zionist war crime, "Israel" then investigates itself and makes every excuse in the world, usually contradicting itself at least five or six times in the process. The next step is for the Zionist regime to claim that it was a mistake, that this case is an anomaly and then it attacks anyone, as being an anti-Semite, who calls for accountability.

The current stance that is maintained by the Israeli military is this; ‘It looks like one of our forces committed a mistake and we regret this, although we were under fire and fighting terrorists, so shut up anti-Semite’, if we were to summarise their current statements. The reality is, a highly-trained Israeli sniper does not shoot a young girl four times, including with a kill-shot to the head, by accident, this was conclusively intentional and to claim otherwise goes against logic.

The fact is, the Zionist regime knows that the US government is uncomfortable when they murder US citizens, children, medical workers, women, and journalists. The natural response for the US is to claim that their open-fire policy is flawed and such a response can be damaging for the regime. The Israeli public will not accept a soldier being held responsible for this murder, it is also one of the reasons why the regime also refused to probe the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. We are dealing with a regime, whose population is in many cases more extreme than the military establishment itself, hence why the third largest party voted into the Israeli Knesset was the Religious Zionism alliance. There is no hope in "Israel" investigating itself, even if some officials thought it would be a good idea, because many Israelis would go nuts and rally in the streets against such a decision, as we saw in the wake of the conviction of Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier that murdered an injured Palestinian on camera in the city of al-Khalil back in 2016. The Zionist public is now even more radicalised than it was back then, and the officials in both "Israel’s" political and military establishments know this well.

The murder of Jana Zakarneh is not only blood on the hands of the Zionist regime, but also the US regime. It is the US government that gives "Israel" its carte-blanche to commit any war crime it chooses inside occupied Palestine. No matter what they do, the “unconditional support” from Washington will remain, confirming further that it is the US that is the enabler and the true power behind these war crimes, every new crime represents more blood on the hands of Joe Biden and his administration.