Palestinians say teen killed by Israeli fire in West Bank

A Palestian man holding a national flag scuffles with Israeli border guards in the occupied West Bank town of Hauwara, on Friday. (AFP)

• The ministry identified the slain teen Zaid Ghunaim, 15
• He was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the neck and back and doctors failed to save his life

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian teenager was shot by Israeli troops Friday near the town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank and died of his wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The ministry identified the slain teen Zaid Ghunaim, 15. It said he was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the neck and back and doctors failed to save his life.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said that “suspects hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails” at its soldiers during a routine patrol in the Al-Khader district south of Bethlehem.
“The soldiers responded with live fire” that hit one “suspect,” the army said, adding that troops provided first aid to the wounded individual before transferring him to the care of the Red Crescent.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited witnesses as saying Ghunaim came upon the soldiers in Al-Khader and tried to ran away but the troops fired at him. Online videos purportedly of the aftermath of the shooting show bloodstains near a white car parked in a passageway.
The death raises to five the number of Palestinian teenagers killed during Israeli military operations in the West Bank in a month.Israeli-Palestinian violence has intensified in recent weeks with near-daily arrest raids in Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank and tensions around a Jerusalem holy site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israeli forces “deliberately” shot at Ghunaim with the intention to kill him.
On Sunday, Israeli ultranationalists plan to march through the main Muslim thoroughfare of the Old City of Jerusalem. The compound houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop site is also the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
The march is meant to celebrate Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel subsequently annexed the area in a step that is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
(With AFP and AP)