A 12-year-old boy was shot dead by a rubber-coated bullet during clashes with Israeli troops not far from Jerusalem, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
“Mohiyeh al-Tabakhi, 12, was killed by shots fired by occupation soldiers in the Al-Ram area near Jerusalem,” the ministry said in a statement, cited by AFP.
Soldiers were dispatched to the area to disperse the demonstration with the help of tear gas grenades and sound bombs. Israeli forces denied using live fire against protesters during the confrontation.
“After being pelted with Molotov cocktails, police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters,” Luba Samri, a police spokesperson, told AFP.
“There was no live fire,” she also said.
Israeli forces also suggested that the boy could have died as a result of a local dispute, Haarets reported.
The boy got a rubber-coated bullet to his chest and died from cardiac arrest, medical sources said, as cited by Palestinian WAFA news agency.
On Monday, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was seriously injured in the West Bank after being run over by an Israeli settler car, local media reported. The incident happened in the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron in West Bank, the Coordinator of the National Committee against Settlements in Yatta Rateb El-Jabour said in an interview with Arabic-language daily Quds Press.
The boy had been crossing the road near the area of Arvaih when the incident occurred, Rateb said. The driver fled the crime scene. Witnesses cited by the local media outlets said the boy was run over deliberately.
The boy identified as Hamza Mahmoud Mohammed Rabei was transported to al-Khalil hospital and diagnosed with a bone fracture in his left thigh and abdominal bleeding. The injuries sustained by the boy were described as “moderate,” doctors reported, according to local media.
Tensions have been running high in the West Bank with both Palestinians and Israeli trading accusations of igniting violence.
At least 40 Israelis have been killed and more than 500 were injured in the attacks carried out by Palestinians since mid-September, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. There were 156 stabbing attacks, including 76 attempted attacks, 98 shootings, 46 ramming attacks and one bus bombing.
More than 200 Palestinians have died during the same period, with Israel claiming that most of the killed were terrorists, AP reports.