Qassem, 17, killed by a stray bullet during a family dispute in the Beddaoui camp, on the evening of June 3, 2024. (Photo sent by Michel Hallak)
The relatives of 17-year-old Qassem Hassan Shehadeh, killed Monday night by a stray bullet during a gunfight between two rival families in the Palestinian camp of Beddaoui, demanded that the shooter be handed over to the camp authorities, insinuating that they will take matters into their own hands if this does not happen.
“After the death of our beloved, we refused to bury him and blocked the camp's main road until the shooter was handed over,” the victim's relatives said in a statement. They added that they then received promises from all sides, including from the two families, which prompted them to unblock the road.
“If the shooter is not handed over, the parties involved will have taken the camp into the unknown, the law of the jungle and a bloodbath,” the text continues, with thinly veiled threats. “We have videos that show who shot, who armed and who incited murder,” the statement concludes.
On Monday evening, a conflict broke out between two families in the camp, the Saleh and Abdel Wahab clans, over a misunderstanding dating back about a month. Numerous weapons were used, leaving two people injured and one killed, Shehadeh, who had nothing to do with the dispute. According to a Palestinian source responsible for the camp, interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour on Tuesday, the incident was individual and had no political implications.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.