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Israeli troops have shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian boy during a strike on a village south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian authorities declared.
As per Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), Israeli troops fired twice in an olive grove at the entrance to the town of Odala Said Odeh. An ambulance was prevented from gaining access to Odeh for 15 minutes, and he was pronounced dead on arrival after being transferred to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.
“Israeli forces regularly kill Palestinian children illegally, with deliberate lethal violence against Palestinian children when they pose no threat,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, director of the Liability Program at DCIP. “Systemic impunity has raised a setting where Israeli forces know no bounds.”
A second Palestinian was shot in the back during the clashes on Wednesday and was treated in hospital, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement announcing the death of the 16-year-old.
The Israeli army said troops fired on Palestinians late Wednesday near the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus, throwing Molotov cocktails at them.
“The troops tried to stop the suspects by shooting at them,” an Israeli military spokesman said, stating that the attack will be probed.
Residents of Beita and Odala say there have been demonstrations over the past few nights on the raids by the Israeli forces – who fired tear gas and live ammo – near the entrances to the villages.
The raids taken carried out as part of the Israeli army’s searches in several nearby villages for a suspected Palestinian gunman who opened fire at the Za’tara checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, seriously injuring two Israelis and another lightly injured.
One of the Israelis, a 19-year-old man, died of his injuries on Wednesday night, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Twitter.
The Israeli security agency, also known as Shin Bet, said it had arrested a Palestinian suspect in the shooting, who identified him as Muntaser Shalabi, a 44-year-old resident of the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya.