Ramallah: A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli army gunfire in the town of Halhul, north of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
“Our team received the body of a 14-year-old child” from the Israeli army and transferred it to a hospital in Hebron, according to a press statement by PRCS on Sunday.
The statement did not provide further details, Xinhua news agency reported.
Local sources reported that Israeli forces had chased a group of children who were playing in a neighbourhood, and gunfire was opened, critically injuring the child Naji al-Baba.
The Israeli army has not issued any comment on the incident.
The West Bank has witnessed raids by the Israeli army amid escalating violence since October 7, 2023, which has led to the deaths of more than 760 Palestinians by Israeli gunfire and shelling, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The latest killing comes amid a year-long ramp-up in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, coinciding with Israel’s war on Gaza.
Last month, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said at least 165 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank over the past year.
The OHCHR report said 36 were killed by air strikes, while 129 were killed by Israeli live ammunition “mostly in the upper body and head”.
The report cited the recent killing of 11-year-old Abdullah Jamal Hawash, who was shot during an Israeli army raid on Nablus.
The young boy sustained wounds from the Israeli gunfire, before eventually succumbing to his injuries later that day.
OHCHR said the boy did not pose any “realistic threat” to Israeli forces after videos shared online showed Hawash throwing stones at them during the violent raid.
–IANS