“They acted with determination and courage – I salute them,” Border Police said in defense of the fighters who inadvertently shot a 16-year-old girl situated in the line of fire.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

Following outrage from the Palestinians coupled with a demand from the U.S. State Department for “accountability” from Israel over the accidental shooting on Sunday of a teenage girl during a counterterrorism operation in Jenin, the Border Police defended its fighters.

At a military graduation ceremony Wednesday evening, Border Police Commander Amir Cohen said, “These fighters acted with morality, values, courage, and determination and saved human lives, and for that I salute them.”

Sixteen-year-old Jana Zakharneh was standing on the rooftop of her home next to an armed terrorist when she was shot, possibly by a Border Police officer, who an unidentified IDF official described as an”outstanding” sniper. The sniper misidentified Zakharneh and took her for another terrorist as she tried to flee, a senior IDF officer said on Monday.

“A decorated and experienced Border Police sniper spotted two figures on a rooftop, one of whom was armed and opened fire. He shot at one of the figures when she tried to run away. We estimate that she was standing next to one of the armed men. She may have been observed and mistakenly identified as a gunman. Unfortunately, she was killed.

“The claim that security forces shot at uninvolved people on purpose is unfounded and baseless,” the officer stated.

During a press briefing Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “It is a tragic incident. It’s a heartbreaking incident any time you hear of a civilian being killed in these types of operations. We understand the IDF is undertaking an investigation into what happened. We hope to see accountability in this case.”

Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir slammed Price’s comments, noting that the victim was standing in the line of fire.

“There’s no doubt that the teenage girl’s death is a tragedy, but there is also no doubt that any other army in the world would have completed the kind of operation we carried out in Jenin with dozens of [bystanders] killed, and not with measured, focused operations,” he said, adding the the IDF prioritizes keeping civilian casualties to an absolute minimum.

Furthermore, “Zakarneh’s presence next to an armed terrorist during a firefight with the Israeli military raises serious questions about her degree of involvement. Initial investigations indicate, for instance, that she regularly served as a photographer for gunmen in her neighborhood. And cellphone footage from her camera isn’t the only evidence,” noted analyst Ruthie Blum in a JNS piece..

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The death of 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh is Ramallah’s latest excuse to enlist the international community in its effort to demonize Israel by accusing it of targeting children.

By Ruthie Blum, JNS

For the powers-that-be in the Palestinian Authority, the death on Sunday night of 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh couldn’t have come at a better time, mere hours before the arrival in the region of UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba.

Gamba kicked off her visit, a fact-finding mission to garner fodder for her annual report on harm to kids in the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict,” in Ramallah.

According to the Wafa news agency, her first meeting was with PA Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who presented her with detailed documentation of “Israel’s systematic and deliberate crimes against Palestinian children,” including “killing and maiming, targeting of schools and hospitals, sexual assaults, kidnapping and denying access to humanitarian and medical aid.”

It must have been music to Gamba’s ears. In the guise of neutrality, however, she will convene with and hear Jerusalem’s version of events (in other words, the truth): that Israel is in a defensive war against terrorists and goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, often to the point of imperiling its own troops.

But the deck of the international body, as always, is stacked against Israel, regardless of the reality on the ground. Zakarneh’s death is but a case in point. Incidents such as the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was caught in a crossfire between the IDF and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists on May 11, are rare. In fact, considering the cynical use by terrorists of non-combatants as human shields, it’s a miracle not more of them are killed.

Furthermore, Zakarneh’s presence next to an armed terrorist during a firefight with the Israeli military raises serious questions about her degree of involvement. Initial investigations indicate, for instance, that she regularly served as a photographer for gunmen in her neighborhood. And cellphone footage from her camera isn’t the only evidence.

Her grieving uncle’s contradictory accounts of the night in question were just as big a giveaway, albeit unintentional. He told one outlet that his niece had been at home minding her own business when the sound of gunshots overhead spurred her to race to the roof. He was quoted on Twitter as claiming that she had gone to the roof to find her missing cat.

Both stories are revealing; most young girls would have responded to the noise of gunfire, all-too-familiar in Jenin, by cowering under their beds, not rushing to get in on the action. It’s puzzling that no adult blocked her exit from the apartment under the circumstances.

As Israeli soldiers and Border Police were in pursuit of terrorists, three of whom were known to be plotting imminent attacks, residents of the area hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and explosives at them. Experience has taught both the murderers and those seeking to arrest them that rooftops are the best perch for this. IDF snipers were thus appropriately positioned.

The one who ended up shooting Zakarneh was simply doing his extremely difficult, dangerous job—in pitch darkness, no less. Had the young woman not been next to the targeted terrorist, filming the exchange to post on social media for propaganda purposes, she would still be alive and well.

But, then, mobs of hate-filled Palestinians would have been robbed of the ritual of carrying her flag-draped body through the streets of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) city that has become a key base for arms-hoarding and terrorist activity against the “Zionists.” It’s par for the making of a martyr, whose family will be rewarded with a generous monthly stipend from the PA.

That’s a given, as is the vile way in which the whole scenario will be depicted in Gamba’s report.

Ruthie Blum is an Israel-based journalist and author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.’”

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It’s not often that we see public criticism by one branch of Israeli security of another, but in this case the Border Police are “furious,” says i24News reporter Jonathan Regev.

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State Department spokesman failed to distinguish between victims of terror and terrorists killed while fighting IDF troops.

By World Israel News Staff

The U.S. State Department called for “accountability” after the IDF took responsibility for the accidental shooting death of a 16-year-old girl in Jenin during a firefight with local terror groups.

During a press briefing on Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the U.S. expresses “our profound condolences to the family of Jana Zakarneh, the young teenage girl who was killed.

“It is a tragic incident. It’s a heartbreaking incident any time you hear of a civilian being killed in these types of operations. We understand the IDF is undertaking an investigation into what happened. We hope to see accountability in this case,” Price continued.

The spokesman did not elaborate on what “accountability” would look like in this context. The U.S. previously called for IDF accountability regarding the slaying of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, with some American lawmakers pressuring Israel to change its rules of engagement in response to the incident – a demand which Jerusalem flatly refused.

In November, the FBI announced that it launched a formal probe investigating Abu Akleh’s killing, angering Israeli officials who said the move constituted inappropriate interference in Israel’s internal security affairs.

Price continued by noting that Zakarneh’s “tragic death comes in the context of the escalating violence in the West Bank that we’ve noted and lamented for some time now.”

He then added that the U.S. was concerned by the “alarming increase in Palestinian and Israeli deaths and injuries, including injuries to numerous children and now the death of a young Palestinian teenager.”

Price did not distinguish between Israeli civilians slain by terrorists, such as the 16-year-old Canadian-Israeli killed in the recent Jerusalem bus stop bombing, and members of terror groups who was shot while hurling explosives or firing at IDF troops.

Washington D.C. expects “all parties to take steps to de-escalate the situation,” Price said. “It’s vital that the parties themselves take urgent action to prevent even greater loss of life.”

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“The claim that security forces shot at uninvolved people on purpose is unfounded and baseless,” the IDF said. 

By World News Staff

A senior IDF officer said Monday that an internal IDF investigation revealed that it was possible that the death of a Palestinian teenager was from Israeli fire during a firefight between terrorists and IDF troops in Jenin a day earlier.

Sixteen-year-old Jana Zakharneh was standing next to an armed terrorist when she was shot, possibly by a Border Police officer, who the unidentified IDF official described as an”outstanding” sniper. The sniper misidentified Zakharneh and took her for another terrorist as she tried to flee, the officer said.

“A decorated and experienced Border Police sniper spotted two figures on a rooftop. one of whom was armed and opened fire. He shot at one of the figures when she tried to run away. We estimate that she was standing next to one of the armed men. She may have been observed and mistakenly identified as a gunman. Unfortunately, she was killed.”

“The IDF and its commanders regret any harm to non-involved people, even those who are in a combat environment and in the exchange of fire near the armed terrorists. The security forces will continue to act to thwart terrorism wherever necessary while making an effort to avoid harming those who are not involved,” the IDF said in a statement.

“The claim that security forces shot at uninvolved people on purpose is unfounded and baseless,” the IDF added.

Zakarneh’s death is still under investigation.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he “expressed sorrow for her death, as for any death of someone who was not engaged in terrorism, if that was indeed the case.”

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Soldiers in the arrest operation say they identified no females among the terrorists they were fighting; IDF is investigating.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Palestinian officials claimed Sunday night that IDF soldiers killed a teenage girl during an arrest operation in Jenin, while the troops involved said they saw no females among the terrorists involved in the accompanying shootout.

According to Palestinian media, Jana Zakharna’s body was found on a rooftop after the IDF had already left the area. The reports said that at 11:23 p.m. the girl took pictures of the IDF forces and that she was shot and killed a short time later.

The army said that its forces had come under heavy fire from the rooftops in the area they were searching and returned fire, identifying no woman or girl among the targets.

Channel 12 reported Sunday night that the IDF’s initial investigation of the incident revealed that seven bullets had been found in her body. Such a large number of slugs would be extremely atypical for the way Israeli soldiers shoot at their assailants, the news site said.

Another avenue that is being explored is that Zakarna was helping the terrorists by acting as an observer, considering her reported possession and use of a camera at the time.

Zakarna’s uncle blames the IDF. In a translated video clip on Ynet, he is seen telling Arab media that his niece had gone to the rooftop of their home when the shooting began outside.

“After two minutes ,the exchange of fire began again, and there were also Israeli sharpshooters on the rooftops,” he said. “The Jews entered the eastern neighborhood and there were wounded. After 20 minutes-half an hour, we yelled at her to return, but Jana didn’t answer. We went up to the roof and saw she was bleeding. Four or five bullets in her head.”

When asked where the sharpshooters were, he answered, “In the building directly across from us.”

Contradicting the IDF, he claimed that no one else could have killed his niece because “the armed men were far away, they were in a different place.”

The body, he continued, was sent to Nablus for an autopsy, “so that we can know for certain that the Jews killed her.”

During the 45-minute operation, the IDF force made the arrest they had come to Jenin to carry out after a tip-off regarding a specific terrorist who was planning to carry out an imminent shooting attack. They also took into custody two of his relatives.

The soldiers, including some undercover dressed as Arabs, were then attacked with live fire both from above and on the ground, with numerous explosive devices thrown at them from various ranges. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group subsequently announced that it was their men who fought with the IDF.

The Palestinian Authority and Islamic forces in Jenin declared a general strike after Zakarna’s death was announced.

The IDF operates in Jenin almost nightly, as it is one of the hotbeds of terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The army said it would be continuing its investigation of the Sunday night incident.

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