Bethlehem/PNN/ Israeli occupation forces Monday afternoon shot and killed a Palestinian youth at the Gush Etzion colonial settlement junction, south of Bethlehem, according to security sources. They said that Israeli forces gunned down Faleh Jaradat, a resident of the southern Hebron-district town of Sa‘ir, at the junction after allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack. Israeli media claimed that the alleged “assailant” exited a car at the junction and attempted to stab a soldier who shot him before the man reached him. The circumstances surrounding the alleged stabbing attempt remain unclear and largely based on the Israeli version of events. Israeli has been criticized for its reflexive use of lethal force and “extrajudicial killings” when Palestinian alleged attackers no longer pose an immediate threat. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that circumstances surrounding such killings over the past months remain disputed. Video footage for similar alleged attacks appears to disapprove Israeli military claims, showing alleged Palestinian attackers did not even attempt to carry out any attacks. Some footage showed Israeli forces manipulating the crime scene following such killings. Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 53-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler-colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.