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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A 13-year-old Palestinian who was shot and seriously injured last month by Israeli forces during a raid into al-Duheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem, and then detained from his home on Tuesday, remained in a dire medical condition, local sources reported on Thursday.

Ramzi Abu Ajamiyeh was detained from his home two days ago, during massive military raids across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem when 40 other Palestinians were detained, including six other minors. The raid into al-Duheisha early Tuesday morning also sparked clashes during which two Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli fire.

Meanwhile, Ramzi was shot in both of his legs during a detention raid in the camp in the beginning of August, and he remained in a “difficult” medical condition as of Thursday as he was being held in Israel’s Ofer military prison.

Local sources added that since the boy was shot, he has had to undergo six surgeries due to his gunshot injuries.

Throughout his detention over the past two days, Israeli forces have reportedly refused to allow Ramzi to take his medication, despite Israeli authorities being informed of his medical condition.

While it could not immediately be confirmed when in early August Ramzi was shot, Ma’an reported on three separate detention raids in al-Duheisha last month that sparked clashes between local youths and Israeli forces, all the three of which resulted in locals being shot and injured.

Violent clashes in al-Duheisha are common and break out nearly every time Israeli forces enter the camp -- often by a large number of soldiers, resulting in injuries of local youth disproportionate to the small number of residents the soldiers were dispatched to detain.

Meanwhile, al-Duheisha is located in Area A and should be under full Palestinian Authority control according to the Oslo agreements.

On Aug. 1, Israeli forces shot and injured a young unidentified Palestinian man in the leg, during a raid carried out to detain two camp residents.
On Aug. 9, clashes following a military raid into al-Duheisha saw seven Palestinians shot and injured by Israeli live ammunition. Just one Palestinian was detained in the raid.

On Aug. 26, two youths in the camp were reportedly shot and injured during an Israeli military raid to detain to one resident.

In all three cases, no injuries were reported among Israeli forces, with the exception of one soldier being hit with a stone during the Aug. 1 raid.
The raids in August came came as reports emerged of an Israeli army commander responsible for Bethlehem’s three refugee camps making repeated threats to make “all youth in the camp disabled.”

The commander, known to locals as “Captain Nidal, ” has made statements such as: “I will make half of you disabled, and let the other half push the wheelchairs,” and “I will make all of you stand in line at the ATM waiting for your disability subsidies and assistance,” according to an investigation by BADIL, the Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.

According to BADIL, which is based in Bethlehem, 30 Palestinians had been shot with live ammunition in the camp between the beginning of the year and mid-August, the majority in their legs and knees.

They added that al-Duheisha had been raided at least three times by Israeli forces between the end of July and mid-August, during which time 18 Palestinian youth between 14 and 27 years old were shot in their legs -- eight of which shot directly in the knee and several more in both legs -- causing both permanent and temporary disabilities.

“These threats indicate that these actions are not accidental or isolated incidents, but rather result from a systematic Israeli military policy aimed at suppressing resistance, terrorizing Palestinian youth, and permanently injuring them and/or causing significant damage to their physical and mental well-being,” BADIL said in their statement.

The reported threats came amid what BADIL called an intensification of the “systematic targeting” of Palestinian youth in the occupied Palestinian territory -- particularly in refugee camps -- since the beginning of 2016.

“This targeting has taken the form of injuries and arbitrary killings by the use of live ammunition by the Israeli army in the context of arrest campaigns, military raids, and random wide searches which usually trigger clashes,” the statement said.

Reports have also emerged that Palestinian authorities and medics are woefully under prepared to to cope with the escalation of gunshot injuries, and al-Duheisha youth have since established a support group for those grappling with the complicated bureaucracy to pay for their surgeries.

BADIL's collection of testimonies came as the latest report amid years of well documented cases of abuse and mistreatment of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in the occupied territory, including in East Jerusalem, which is under Israeli police jurisdiction.