West Bank martyr's father slams US support for 'Israel' during funeral

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Jan 2024 03:52

17-year-old US-Palestinian Tawfiq Ajaq was shot dead by IOF on Friday in the town of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah.

The body of 17-year-old Palestinian martyr Tawfiq Ajaq is carried out of the family home ahead of his funeral procession on January 20, 2024. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)

Palestinians gathered Saturday to mourn the death of a teenager killed by Israeli occupation forces' gunfire in the occupied West Bank.

In a case that has drawn concern from the White House, 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq was shot dead Friday in the town of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa and relatives of the young man said.

Ajaq was a US citizen, according to his father and a local official in the area, Hassan Zeben.

"He is a soldier of Palestine," women at the funeral chanted in English.

Friends and relatives gathered at a small morgue in Silwad, where the body had been kept overnight. The body was draped in a Palestinian flag and adorned with flowers before mourners carried it away.

The White House claimed Friday it was "seriously concerned" about reports that a Palestinian teenager with US citizenship had been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank.

"We're seriously concerned about these reports. The information is scant at this time, we don't have perfect context about exactly what happened," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, despite Washington continuing to support the Israeli occupation militarily and diplomatically.

During the funeral, Ajaq’s father slammed the US support for the Israeli occupation, shouting, "They are using our tax dollars in the US to support the weapons to kill our own children."

Israeli occupation forces' incursions into the cities and towns of the occupied West Bank have surged following the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed more than 360 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.