Palestinian boy shot dead in West Bank

Soldier with gun

Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said.The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment on the incident, which occurred while the boy was riding in a car with his father near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.The boy, Mohamed al-Alami, was shot in the chest, the Palestinian health ministry said, and died several hours after being rushed to a nearby hospital.There were no disturbances in the area at the time of the shooting, locals said. The West Bank is among territories where Palestinians seek statehood.Violence has simmered there since US-sponsored talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2014.A Palestinian man was killed late Tuesday in Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank, the scene of clashes between protesters and Israeli forces for weeks, Palestinian officials said, AFP reported.Shadi Omar Lotfi Salim, 41, was shot dead near the flashpoint Palestinian village of Beita, the Palestinian health ministry said.Beita deputy mayor Mussa Hamayel said that Israeli soldiers killed the man as entered the village on his return from work.“He was killed in cold blood,” the deputy mayor alleged, adding that there had been no protests in the area Tuesday night. The Israeli army issued a statement saying that while on routine duty soldiers “spotted a Palestinian suspect in the area,” south of Nablus.“When the Palestinian began advancing rapidly towards the troop with a suspicious object identified as an iron bar in his hand, the troop operated to stop the suspect following the standard procedures, including by firing warning shots into the air,” the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said in a statement.“When the suspect continued advancing, the commander of the troop fired towards the suspect. The incident will be investigated,” it said. Beita has been the scene of frequent unrest since May, when dozens of Israeli families arrived and began building the wildcat settlement of Eviatar on a hilltop near Nablus in defiance of Israeli and international law.After weeks of clashes and tensions, the government of nationalist Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett struck a deal with the settlers that saw them leave the Eviatar outpost.The settlers left behind the rudimentary homes they built until the Israeli defence ministry determines whether the land can be considered state territory.