West Bank Palestinians bury teenager shot dead by Israeli forces

Palestinians lined a narrow lane in the occupied West Bank's Dheisheh refugee camp Saturday as they laid to rest a teenager shot dead by Israeli forces, with the military saying its troops had fired in response to a threat.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry identified the 15-year-old as Adham Sayed Saleh Dahman, who died a day earlier from "serious wounds caused by Israeli forces' gunfire," according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Wafa reported that he was killed during a military operation on Friday evening in the camp south of Bethlehem.

Dahman was shot in the abdomen, the report said, noting that another Palestinian was also wounded in the incident.

"He wanted to work to help me buy a house," his mother, Hanan Shaalan, told AFP.

"He was in the ninth grade," she said, adding that shortly before he was killed he had told her he wanted to be a chef.

Hundreds of men, women and children gathered for Dahman's funeral, with his mother and a group of local men carrying his body through the camp wrapped in Palestinian flag, an AFP correspondent reported.

Raghad Shamroukh, a resident of the camp, said Israeli forces had been entering the area regularly in recent days.

"They walk around the camp gate, harassing people for no reason," Shamroukh said.

"They fire tear gas, suffocating people. The children run away from them... This time they fired live ammunition."

Stone-throwing, live fire

Israel confirmed to AFP that one Palestinian was killed and another wounded.

Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has surged since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led operation and Israel's subsequent war on Gaza.

According to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,054 Palestinians — including many militants as well as civilians — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

At least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in the territory in attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli data.

The violence in the West Bank has continued unabated even after the October cease-fire in Gaza, and since the outbreak of the current war in the Middle East, there has been a fresh spate of deadly attacks by Israeli settlers.