A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Monday evening, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The incident occurred in the village of Burqa, situated north-west of Nablus, as Israeli soldiers conducted an operation in the area.
Conflicting Accounts of the Incident
The Israeli military stated that its soldiers identified "several terrorists who intended to hurl stones" in a location where stones had previously been thrown at Israeli vehicles. The soldiers fired towards them "to remove the threat," the military added. However, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its teams treated two individuals with gunshot wounds, but that Israeli forces blocked their access to a third wounded person and detained three volunteer paramedics. The wounded were later identified by the Palestinian news agency Wafa as a 17-year-old boy, shot in the abdomen and pelvis, and a 19-year-old man, shot in the hand.
Relatives of the deceased, Moataz Daghlas, said that Israeli authorities were withholding his body. The practice of withholding bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces has been criticized by human rights groups as a form of collective punishment.
Rising Toll and International Concern
According to the United Nations, at least 98 Palestinians, including 22 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the beginning of the year. Over the same period, six Israelis, both security personnel and civilians, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank.
The rules of engagement for Israeli forces were reportedly broadened following the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, granting soldiers greater discretion to use lethal force against perceived threats. In June, the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory reported that it had verified the killing of 241 Palestinian children by Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank since that time. Most of the children were teenage boys, and in many cases, Israeli authorities accused them of stone-throwing as justification. The UN office assessed that none of the children killed while involved in confrontations with Israeli forces had posed an imminent threat to life, which it said is the only legal justification for the use of lethal force in the West Bank under international law.
The killing underscores the volatile situation in the West Bank, where violence has escalated in recent months. Palestinian families have also been displaced as Israeli forces demolished homes in Hebron, and Israeli police arrested 10 individuals over settler attacks on a journalist and diplomats. The international community continues to call for restraint and a return to peace negotiations.
