Submitted by CRIN on
[17 October 2014] -
Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian boy in a village in the occupied West Bank, local medics and residents said.
Thirteen-year-old Bahaa Badr was shot as Israeli forces entered Beit Liqya near the separation wall with Israel, and were reportedly pelted with stones by local youths on Thursday.
It is unclear whether the boy took part in the confrontation, which the Israeli army described as an "illegal riot" in which residents threw Molotov cocktails at their forces, as they were exiting the village.
A military spokesperson said soldiers responded with live fire and the army would investigate the killing.
Director Ahmed Betawai of the Ramallah Hospital said the boy was shot three times in the chest and died of his wounds about two hours after the incident.
Tensions in the occupied West Bank have risen since Israel's seven-week war in Gaza began in July and killed more than 2,000 Palestinians - mostly civilians - and more than 70 Israelis, almost all of them soldiers.
In recent days, tensions also spiked amid Palestinian charges that Israel is limiting access to Palestinian worshippers at the Haram al-Sharif in East Jerusalem.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since capturing them in the 1967 war. Palestinians want the territories, along with the Gaza Strip, for a future state.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians mediated by the United States collapsed in April.
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