Israeli army kills Palestinian youth

(Patria) - Israeli soldiers opened fire on a group of Palestinian youths whom they believed were planning an attack on Israeli vehicles in the West Bank, the Israeli army reports, while Palestinian authorities claim a teenager was killed in the incident.

An Israeli army spokesperson stated that soldiers opened fire on a 'terrorist group', but did not provide further details.

Palestinian health officials reported that Israeli forces killed Mohammad Hamdan (16), while two other Palestinian youths were injured.

Imrad Zahran, chairman of the council of the village where Hamdan lived, explained that the three youths were near a road used by Jewish settlers when Israeli soldiers opened fire.

The military spokesperson claims that soldiers opened fire after noticing flammable material in the hands of the Palestinian youths, and that they were preparing to set tires on fire to carry out an attack on Israeli vehicles.

Zahran claims that the two injured Palestinians were transferred to the hospital, while Hamdan, who was taken by the army, died later from his injuries.

The military spokesperson also stated that the shooting occurred at a location where similar attacks on Israeli vehicles had occurred in the past.

Israeli settlements, considered illegal by most countries in the world, are viewed by Palestinians as a method used by Israel to achieve permanent control over the West Bank, thereby reducing the chance of creating a Palestinian state, writes Reuters.

Israel had planned to continue the annexation of parts of the West Bank but halted its implementation following a US request to reach an agreement on normalizing relations with the United Arab Emirates, where abandoning annexation was one of the key conditions.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War. According to 2017 data, approximately 2,747,940 Palestinians and about 391,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.