West Bank 14-year-old shot dead, Palestinians say

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces shot dead a 14-year-old in the occupied West Bank, while Israel said troops fired to stop stone-throwing near a highway.

The Palestinian health ministry said Moutaz Eyad Daghlas was killed late on Monday in Burqa, northwest of Nablus.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams treated two people with gunshot wounds and took them to hospital. It said Israeli forces blocked access to a third wounded person and detained three volunteer paramedics.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that soldiers had acted to “thwart stone-hurling and terrorist attacks” in the area. It said troops identified several people it called terrorists who intended to throw stones at a highway used by Israeli vehicles, and fired toward them “in order to remove the threat.”

Israeli forces have routinely used live fire against Palestinians, including minors, who throw stones in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since 1967.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem said Israeli forces killed at least 241 children or teenagers in the West Bank between the October 7, 2023 attack by Gaza-based Hamas and late June this year.

An AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority figures says Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,116 Palestinians, civilians and militants, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war. Official Israeli figures say Palestinian attacks or clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces have killed at least 51 Israelis in the same period.