(Ramallah) The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry announced on Tuesday the death of a teenager, shot dead in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli army, which said it had opened fire on “terrorists.”
Ghassan Gharib Zahrane, 13, was killed “by bullets from the occupation [Israël] in Deir Abu Mishal, in the Ramallah district,” the ministry reported in a short statement.
Reached by AFP, his cousin Monther Zahrane said he was shot in the stomach while he was on the main street of Deir Abou Mishal.
“The road is used by settlers and the army monitors it constantly,” he said.
Asked by AFP, the Israeli army indicated that stones had been thrown at Israeli vehicles near this locality.
“Israeli security forces on the scene responded by opening fire towards the terrorists,” the army said, specifying that one of them had been “hit.”
At his funeral, his body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag and his head in a black and white keffiyeh, before being carried through the crowd in Ramallah, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene.
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has been experiencing a surge in violence for two years, exacerbated by the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil.
Since that date, at least 572 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian authorities, and at least 16 Israelis have been killed there in Palestinian attacks or bombings, according to official Israeli figures.
Elsewhere in the Palestinian territory, the Israeli army carried out a new raid on Tuesday in the Nour Shams camp, near Tulkarem (north), destroying buildings, noted an AFP journalist, who saw thick clouds of smoke escaping from it.
A wanted person was arrested there, according to the army. It said it carried out a 15-hour operation, destroying “dozens of explosive devices placed on the road in order to injure our soldiers” as well as premises used by “a local terrorist organization.”
The office of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa expressed alarm at “an escalation with major humanitarian repercussions” in the Nour Shams camp.
“Recent events show unprecedented destruction of critical infrastructure, including water and electricity networks and significant demolitions of Palestinian homes,” a statement said.