(NewsNation) — Born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, Tawfiq Ajaq was a free spirit who enjoyed the outdoors and hanging with friends.
That’s how Ajaq’s father Hafez will remember his 17-year-old son, who was killed in the West Bank on Friday by Israeli fire. Officials say an Israeli civilian and off-duty policeman shot Ajaq, who also goes by the name Tawfic Abdel Jabbar.
“Bright kid, had a lot of dreams, would joke, laugh make fun of me, his mom, his brothers,” Hafez Ajaq, who also goes by the name Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, said Monday on “CUOMO.” “He loves the woods, he loves to be out and about. … He just likes to be out with friends and just be free.”
Israeli authorities have initiated an investigation into the incident, which has left the teenager’s family devastated. Other family members expressed profound heartbreak in an interview this weekend on “NewsNation Prime” and are struggling to comprehend the details surrounding Ajaq’s death.
The 17-year-old was in the West Bank to learn more about his heritage. His parents brought him and his four siblings to the village of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharqiya last year so they could reconnect with Palestinian culture.
Tensions have been heightened in the West Bank since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October, and nearly 370 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since. The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed concern about violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in recent months.
Ajaq believes his son — who he says had not been involved in any protests — fell victim to that violence.
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Ajaq said. “They intentionally killed my son cold-blooded. This is a cold-blooded murder.”
The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear.
Ajaq’s relative, Joe Abdel Qaki, said that Ajaq and a friend were having a barbecue in a village field when he was shot by Israeli fire, once in the head and once in the chest.
Abdel Qaki said he arrived at the field shortly after the shooting and helped transport Ajaq to an ambulance. He said Israeli forces briefly detained him and other Palestinians at the scene, asking for their IDs before the men could get to Ajaq.
He said Ajaq died in the ambulance on the way to a hospital.
Israeli police said they received a report Friday regarding a “firearm discharge, ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian.” Police did not identify who fired the shot, though it said the shooting targeted people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities along Highway 60,” the main north-south thoroughfare in the West Bank.
Tawfiq Ajaq’s family previously told NewsNation they believe the assailant is possibly an Israeli soldier. Hafez Ajaq says he has experienced harassment along the same road where his son was shot.
“It’s a very common thing that the soldiers park their car on the side of the street, walk up and hide between all of trees or under the hill, and when somebody comes up they come out and point guns,” Ajaq said.
On Saturday, crowds of Palestinians pulsed through village streets, following men who held aloft a stretcher with the teen’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag. There at the funeral, Hafez Ajaq implored Americans to “see with their own eyes” the ongoing violence in the West Bank.
“The American society does not know the true story,” he said. “Come here on the ground and see what’s going on. … How many fathers and mothers have to say goodbye to their children? How many more?”
On Monday, he called out the Biden administration for continuing to provide military support to Israel.
“My question is to my government, to my president, to my secretary of state, to my government: When is this gonna stop?” Ajaq said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
