RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car towards them as well as a Palestinian bystander in the West Bank on Saturday, according to an Israeli security official.
The military said that an “uninvolved person” was hit in addition to the driver of the car who had “accelerated” towards soldiers at a checkpoint in West Bank city of Hebron.
In an earlier statement, the military said two “terrorists” were killed after soldiers opened fire, before later clarifying that only one was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and a 55-year-old was the bystander.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the second Palestinian as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
The motive for the 17-year-old’s actions was not immediately clear, and no militant group claimed responsibility.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta in in Ramallah and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem; editing by Christina Fincher)
Comments