OIC demands probe into Israel’s assassination of Palestinian toddler

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned the Israeli regime for shooting dead a Palestinian toddler in the occupied West Bank, demanding an independent international investigation into the crime.

Israeli soldiers on Thursday shot in the head of two-and-a-half-year-old Mohammad Haytham Tamimi in the village of Nabi Salah, near Ramallah, when he and his father, Haytam Tamimi, were in their parked car outside their home.

Mohammad suffered critical injuries in the head while his father received chest injuries. The toddler was taken to Sheba Hospital, where he remained on life support until he has attained martyrdom on Monday morning.

In a statement following the shooting, the Israeli military claimed that its soldiers mistook the Palestinian toddler and his father for Palestinian fighters.

The OIC "has condemned the continuing crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces, the latest of which was the heinous crime that claimed the life of the two-year-old Palestinian child, Mohammed Al-Tamimi, who was shot in the head," read a statement by the 57-member intergovernmental organization on Tuesday.

The Jeddah-based organization also stressed that it "considers that this crime is one in a series of continued Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, including children, with no less than 28 children having been martyred at the hands of the Israeli occupation since the beginning of this year."

The OIC further called for opening "an independent international investigation into this crime."

Israeli forces launch raids on various cities of the occupied West Bank on an almost daily basis under the pretext of detaining what is called “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.

ME