Just a few days into the New Year and already two unarmed Palestinians have been killed by the occupying Israeli army in the West Bank. In December alone, 12 Palestinians were killed in the besieged Gaza enclave by Israeli missile attacks.

Jawahar Abu Rahma died as a result of inhaling tear gas. She was 36. Twenty months ago her brother, Bassem, was killed by a high velocity tear gas projectile fired by an Israeli soldier. Both Jawahar and Bassem were in the area of the weekly non violent protests against the Israeli wall that divides, steals and decimates communities in the occupied West Bank.
Michael Sfard, the lawyer representing the woman’s family, said that soldiers used ‘incredible quantities of gas’
Witnesses have stated that Ms Abu Rahma was some way from the protest at the time.

In a separate incident, Ahmed Muslamani was shot in the chest and legs until dead. He was 24.
He approached an Israeli occupation checkpoint in the West Bank and was shot. A spokeswoman for the army said that ‘the soldiers apparently felt threatened’. Ahmed was unarmed.
This is how cheap and inconsequential life is for Palestinians. A woman dies after ‘incredible quantities of gas’ is used against unarmed civilians who were protesting against an illegal wall.
A second, unarmed man, is shot multiple times because heavily armed and supported soldiers ‘felt threatened’.
That’s it. Two more dead Palestinians. Two more unarmed, occupied civilians killed by an occupying army.