JERUSALEM ( Associated Press) – The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager in an army raid in the occupied West Bank.
He is the latest victim of what has already been one of the most violent periods in the West Bank in recent years.
Hamza al-Ashkar, 17, died after being shot in the head in the West Bank city of Nablus, according to the ministry, but did not give further details of what happened.
The army clarified that it carried out raids across the West Bank, including the city of Nablus. There, he was fired upon by soldiers and soldiers fired back at an armed Palestinian who fired at them.
The incident came a day after Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen affiliated with the Islamist insurgent group Hamas in a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has carried out almost nightly detention raids on Palestinian towns in the West Bank since a series of Palestinian attacks on Israeli soil last spring. The Palestinian Authority announced it would stop coordinating with Israel on security matters following the death of 10 Palestinians in one of these operations last month.
According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, about 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, making the past year the deadliest since 2004. So far this year, 42 Palestinians have been killed in these areas. Last year, 30 people were killed in attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
According to Israel, most of those killed were Palestinian rebels. But among the victims are young people who threw stones to protest the searches and others who were not involved in the confrontation.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli forces captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip—the territories the Palestinians claim for their future state.
