The Israeli military killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy near Bethlehem late on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry, as violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank surges.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that the 15-year-old boy had died after arriving at the hospital in a critical condition with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The boy had been shot in the Dheisheh camp during an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian WAFA state news agency reported.
The Israeli military said a Palestinian was killed after soldiers opened fire during what it described as a “violent riot” in which stones were thrown at soldiers near Bethlehem. The statement did not identify the Palestinian killed or specify why Israeli forces were in the area.
It was the third reported Palestinian killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces on Friday. The WAFA earlier on Friday reported that two Palestinian men had been shot dead by Israeli forces.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since October 2023 when Hamas carried out its deadly attack on Israel from Gaza.
Since then, the military has tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank, and launched raids that have displaced entire communities, while violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has increased.
Palestinians have also carried out deadly attacks against Israelis.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military also killed three Palestinian men in Gaza on Saturday in two separate air strikes, local health officials and medics said.
Palestinian health officials said one man was killed in an air strike on a car in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, while medics said two adult brothers were killed in Shujiaya, a neighbourhood east of Gaza City.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the two air strikes.
The military has killed more than 680 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire with Hamas came into effect in November, local health officials say. More than 72,000 have been killed since the war started in October 2023.
Israel is now also waging a war alongside the U.S. against Iran, and is carrying out a new campaign against Hezbollah where Israeli forces have invaded southern Lebanon.
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency said the brothers were killed in an air strike by the Israeli military after an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia in Gaza had tried to abduct them.
Neither Hamas nor any other militant group has identified the brothers as members.
Witnesses told Reuters the two brothers, armed with guns, clashed with the militia and that they were later targeted by drones. The witnesses also reported Israeli tanks opening fire.
Violence in Gaza has persisted despite the ceasefire and amid Israel’s war with Iran. Health officials in the territory say at least 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iran conflict began a month ago.
