WEST BANK (Palestine Foundation Information Center) A Palestinian child was killed on Saturday morning when a landmine left behind by the Israeli occupation army exploded in al-Rashayda area, east of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry said that seven-year-old Mohamed Rashayda was martyred when he stepped on a landmine left by the Israeli army in al-Rashayda area.
Unexploded ordnance left behind by the Israeli army is particularly concentrated in the southern West Bank areas and the northern Jordan Valley, where its military exercises take place.
The Israeli army routinely uses Palestinian land in the West Bank for training and live fire exercises, leaving behind unexploded shells and bombs, which pose a deadly threat to local residents.
In this regard, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi mourned the seven-year-old boy from the family of al-Rashayda who was martyred in a landmine explosion in the West Bank.
In a statement, Mardawi accused the Israeli army of deliberately leaving landmines and explosive objects in certain West Bank areas as part of its efforts to displace the local populations and take over their lands.
Mardawi also stated that the West Bank people and youths would remain a thorn in the side of the Israeli occupation and its agents until the liberation of the Palestinian land.
The Hamas official described the repeated Israeli raids and acts of rampage and destruction in the West Bank as “barbaric practices reflecting the nature of the fascist and criminal occupation state.”
He expressed his belief that the systematic attacks that are carried out by government-backed settler groups in the West Bank would not succeed in displacing Palestinians from their land and rather would increase their determination to remain steadfast in the face of Israeli plans.
