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Update: May 20, 2014
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian human rights group on Monday published video footage showing the moment two teenage boys were shot dead by Israeli military forces on Nakba Day last week.
"The images captured on video show unlawful killings where neither child presented a direct and immediate threat to life at the time of their shooting," said Rifat Kassis, executive director of DCI-Palestine.
"These acts by Israeli soldiers may amount to war crimes, and the Israeli authorities must conduct serious, impartial, and thorough investigations to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes."
Israeli military forces have killed four Palestinian children in 2014. Over 1,400 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since 2000, according to DCI-Palestine.
Amnesty International condemned Israel's military forces following the killings, saying the army has "repeatedly resorted to extreme violence to respond to Palestinian protests against Israel’s occupation, discriminatory policies, confiscation of land and construction of unlawful settlements."
In February, Amnesty released a report entitled 'Trigger-happy,' which found that Israeli forces display a "callous disregard" for human life, with near total impunity for the killing of Palestinian civilians in cases examined since 2011.
The report said that some killings, including the murder of Samir Awad, 16, in Jan. 2013, could amount to war crimes.
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a young Palestinian man and a teenage boy Thursday during a protest rally marking the 66th anniversary of the Nakba west of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
Witnesses and medical sources identified the victims as 22-year-old Muhammad Audah Abu al-Thahir from the Ramallah-area village of Abu Shukheidim and 17-year-old Nadim Siyam Nuwarah from al-Mazraa al-Qibliyya village in Ramallah district.
The victims, according to medical sources, were shot by live ammunition in the chest. Their bodies were evacuated to Ramallah Medical Complex.
Medics said three teenagers were also injured by live bullets. One was struck in the chest, one in the foot, and one in the leg. Doctors say they are in stable condition.
An Israeli military spokeswoman did not immediately return calls.
Participants in the rally near Ofer detention center said they also wanted to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held without trial who have been on hunger strike for 22 days.
Palestinians across the occupied territories and elsewhere were commemorating the Nakba, or catastrophe, of the founding of the State of Israel on Thursday.
During the Nakba, more than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number more than 5 million with their descendants -- fled or were driven from their homes in 1948.
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Two youth killed in violent clashes as thousands mark Nakba Day, 11 injured; Palestinian sources say they were shot with rubber bullets by Border Police
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By Chaim Levinson, Jack Khoury and Haaretz | May 15, 2014 | 5:57 PM
Two Palestinians were killed by rubber bullets shot by Border Police at a Nakba protest outside the Ofer Military Prison near Ramallah, Palestinians reported Thursday. The victims are Mohammad Abu Thaher and Nadeem Siam.
At least eleven others were injured. A minor was also wounded, but details of his injuries were not available.
Hospital officials said Muhammad Abu Thahr, 22, and Nadim Nuwara, 17, were both shot in the heart outside Israel's Ofer Prison near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military declined comment, saying border police were involved in the incident. A police spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
Thousands of Palestinians marked Nakba Day on Thursday with rallies throughout the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.
There were clashes reported with Israeli forces in Ramallah and Hebron.
Nakba is the Palestinian term for the “catastrophe” they suffered upon Israel’s establishment on May 14, 1948, which led to the displacement of around 700,000 Palestinians, which today number 5 million refugees, as registered by UNRWA.
A 66-second siren marking 66 years since the Nakba sounded in Ramallah, where Palestinians marched from the tomb of Yasser Arafat to Al Manara Square in the city's downtown district.
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