Israeli forces kill 14-year-old Palestinian boy in West Bank | Israel

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian boy near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where the army said they opened fire after people threw molotov cocktails.

Omar Khmour, 14, was shot in the head early on Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and “succumbed to his wounds”, the Palestinian ministry said.

The Israeli military said troops opened fire after “suspects hurled rocks, explosive devices and molotov cocktails at the soldiers”.

He is the second boy killed in Dheisheh during an Israeli military incursion so far this month.

One person was arrested by troops in Dheisheh, the Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the army entered the camp “at dawn and launched a campaign of raids on citizens’ homes”.

Khmour is the 14th Palestinian killed in the West Bank since the start of the year, including civilians and fighters, with most shot dead by Israeli forces, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.

Following a series of fatal attacks targeting Israelis last March and April, Israeli forces launched near-nightly raids in the West Bank in which scores have been killed.

The violence in 2022 made it the deadliest year in the West Bank since United Nations records began in 2005.

At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories last year, according to AFP figures.