The killer of 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, Attallah Mohammad Harb Rayan, has been identified as a Briton serving in the Israeli occupation forces. The boy had been shot last Tuesday.

The Middle East Eye reports that Attallah’s killer has been identified as a British female Corporall Lian Harush. The 22-year-old had travelled by herself from the UK to serve as a “lone soldier” in Israel’s occupation army. There are reportedly up to 6 000 such soldiers holding dual citizenship serving in the Israeli military.

Defense for Children International – Palestine, an independent non-governmental organization established to monitor Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian children, said that occupation troops shot Attallah near the Barkan settlement close to the occupied West Bank. DCIP cited Israeli army radio. The child is alleged to have carried a knife and had supposedly attempted to attack an Israeli soldier. The Middle East Eye reports that, after fatally shooting Attaullah, Harush called her parents in London, from the scene, to update them on the ‘attack’ and told them she was fine.

The Middle East Eye reports that international law stipulates that intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. investigations and evidence collected by DCIP, nevertheless, repeatedly indicates that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children amounting to extrajudicial or willful killings.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has termed these ‘lone soldiers’ of the controversial program “true Zionists”, while Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog has described them as “a true example of what Zionism is all about.”

The MME reports that an Al Jazeera report had previously found that far-right radical organizations in Europe were recruiting westerners to serve in the Israeli army, adding that  many of these foreign fighters took part in the 2014 war on Gaza.

Umm Muhammed Umar