RAMALLAH: A Palestinian teenager died from his wounds hours after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources said Saturday.

Mohammad Hamad, 16, was shot and wounded on Friday evening near the town of Silwad, close to Ramallah in the northern West Bank, and died hours later, a Silwad councillor said.

The teenager was near a road leading to the neighbouring settlement of Ofra when he was shot by Israeli soldiers, the councillor said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said dozens of Palestinians had gathered near Silwad and that “a number of suspects hurled rocks” at passing cars, “endangering civilians”.

“Soldiers at the scene operated to stop the suspects in accordance with standard operating procedures, using live fire as a last resort,” she told AFP.

A Palestinian was hit, she added, without giving further details.

The death comes amid a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Nineteen people, mostly Israeli civilians — including 18 inside Israel and a Jewish settler — have been killed in attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs since late March.

Israeli security forces have responded with raids inside Israel and in the West Bank in which three Israeli Arab attackers and at least 46 Palestinians have been killed.

Among those killed were suspected militants but also non-combatants, including an Al Jazeera journalist who was covering a raid in Jenin.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2022