Israeli security forces fatally shot a 14-year-old Palestinian during an early morning raid at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest incident in weeks of surging violence.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the teenager as Omar Khumour and said he died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. Crowds of Palestinians full of rage massed outside the hospital where he died in Bethlehem, chanting against Israel and praising God.
The Israeli army said forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.
The death of Khumour brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank so far this year to 14, including three people under the age of 18, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Violence and unrest have raged for months in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for their hoped-for state. Some half-million Israelis now live in about 130 settlements across the West Bank, which the Palestinians and much of the international community view as an obstacle to peace.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).