Palestinian-American boy killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
A Palestinian-American teenager has been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.Omar Mohammed Saada Rabea, 14, was shot on the outskirts of Turmus Ayya on Sunday evening along with two other 14-year-old boys, one of whom was seriously wounded. The other suffered minor wounds.The Israeli military said its troops opened fire at three "terrorists" who were throwing stones towards a highway and endangering civilians driving on it.The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it called the latest in a "series of extrajudicial killings" by Israeli forces.
There was no immediate comment from the US, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet President Donald Trump on Monday to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip, Iran and US tariffs.There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their search-and-arrest raids across the territory, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.
The mayor of Turmus Ayya said Omar Rabea was shot dead on Sunday near the entrance to the town, which is about 15km (9 miles) north-east of Ramallah and has a sizeable population of Palestinian-Americans.The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of the two boys was shot in the lower abdomen and the other in the thigh.AFP news agency cited one of the boys, whom it identified as Abdul Rahman Shehadeh, as saying he was shot by a soldier while collecting fruit.The father of the third boy, Ayoub Asaad, said he was also a US citizen and that the ambulance transporting him to hospital was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint outside the town, according to AFP.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that during counter-terrorism activity in the Turmus Ayya area its soldiers "identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving".The soldiers fired towards them, "eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists", it added.The foreign ministry of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority denounced the "use of live fire against three children" by Israeli forces."Israel's continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes," it warned.Last Thursday, the UN human rights chief said the situation in the West Bank was "extremely alarming".Volker Türk told the UN Security Council that Israeli operations in the north had killed hundreds of people, destroyed entire refugee camps and makeshift medical sites, and displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians.In January, Israel launched a major operation called "Operation Iron Wall" against Palestinian armed groups in the northern West Bank, saying it aimed to "defeat terrorism".Türk said his office had verified that Israeli state and settler violence had killed at least 909 Palestinians across the West Bank since 7 October 2023, including 191 children and five people with disabilities. He warned that some of the killings might amount to extrajudicial and other unlawful killings.Over the same period, 51 Israelis, including 15 women and four children, had been killed in Palestinian attacks or armed clashes in the West Bank and Israel, he said.Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
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