West Bank teen killed by Israeli fire, Palestinians say

Palestinian health authorities said Israeli gunfire killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, while an Israeli and a Palestinian were wounded in separate incidents.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the teenager as Islam Ahmad Maher Ajouri and said he was killed in the Askar refugee camp, where he lived, outside Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Mohammed Abu Kashk, head of the Askar camp services committee, said Ajouri was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on the camp. He said there were no clashes or confrontations that would justify shooting the child.

A Palestinian Red Crescent source said Ajouri was hit in the chest by live ammunition. He was pronounced dead at Nablus National Hospital.

The Israeli army said it was verifying the information.

In a separate incident, the army said it apprehended a man suspected of stabbing an Israeli earlier Sunday in Al-Auja, in the central West Bank. Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said the 24-year-old victim had a penetrating wound and was taken to a hospital in Jerusalem in moderate condition.

Israeli police said initial findings indicated the victim had parked near a shopping centre and was attacked from behind and stabbed in the shoulder. Hani Najum, head of the Al-Auja village council, said the Israeli army raided the village, deployed in its streets and imposed a curfew.

In a third incident, the Israeli army said a “terrorist” attempted to steal a weapon from an Israeli soldier near the Palestinian town of Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah, and that forces opened fire and “neutralised” him.

Palestinian sources said the man, Aws Akram Maatan, from Burqa east of Ramallah, was wounded in the foot and taken to a Jerusalem hospital. Sayel Kanaan, head of the Burqa village council, said Maatan had been shot “without justification”.

Violence has surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the start of the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel. Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinians since then, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data. Israeli figures say at least 48 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations over the same period.