• Jibril Al-Lada was killed during incursion into Aqbat Jaber camp
• Israeli forces set up more checkpoints as siege of Jericho enters 10th day

Mohammed Najib

RAMALLAH: Large crowds turned out in Jericho on Monday for the funeral of 17-year-old Jibril Al-Lada, the Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli forces during their incursion into the Aqbat Jaber camp.

During the ceremony, the Fatah Movement and local mosques announced “a general strike for all aspects of life in the city and the camp, to condemn the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 104 Palestinians had been shot dead by Israeli forces since the start of the year.

Commenting on the death of Al-Lada, militant group Hamas said: “The Israeli occupation must realize that the storming of our cities and towns … will turn into a battle from which only a loser will come out.”

The Israeli army’s siege of Jericho entered its 10th day on Monday, with forces setting up checkpoints at the city’s main entry points, stopping vehicles and checking passengers’ identities.

Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, a 20-year-old man was critically injured on Monday after being shot by an Israeli soldier. The bullet penetrated his lower back and thoracic cavity, causing a laceration to his right lung.

The same day, 16 Palestinians were arrested in separate raids by Israeli soldiers in several areas of the West Bank.

Palestinian political analyst Ghassan Al-Khatib told Arab News that the far-right Israeli government wanted to show it was more violent than its predecessors in order to win voter support.

He said the daily military incursions into West Bank cities and towns had affected the credibility of the Palestinian Authority and its security services and contributed to a state of chaos in some areas.

Meanwhile, sources said on Monday that the Israeli authorities intended to build a road, for use by Palestinians, linking the north and south of the West Bank in the E1 area near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.

The route will pass from the Al-Zaim area to Al-Eizariya, southeast of Jerusalem. Its purpose is likely to separate Palestinians, who must cross Gush Adumim to reach Route 1, from Jewish travelers.

The Ma’ale Adumim settlement municipality said the purpose of the road was to separate the lines of communication between Palestinians and settlers, allowing Palestinian residents to go directly to Ramallah without passing through the Al-Za’im checkpoint.

Neta Ammar Shiv, a lawyer representing the municipality of Al-Eizariya and Bedouin communities in the area, said the road would be built based on an order to seize private Palestinian lands.

He added that it would exacerbate, not solve, the traffic crisis as Israel had claimed, and would cut off the road between the Bedouin communities living in Area C.

Peace Now, an activist group in Israel, said the road would separate Al-Khan Al-Ahmar from the dozens of Bedouin communities surrounding it.