Palestinians: Israeli fire kills teen in West Bank

Palestinians clash with Israeli forces following a raid at the entrance to Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jericho, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed a teenage boy Thursday in the north of the occupied West Bank, the latest in a flare-up of violence that has raged for months.

The ministry said Mohammed Saleem, 15, was wounded with a live bullet in the back along with another teenager who was hit by a gunshot in the chest in Azoun village near the town of Qalqilya. Saleem died at a hospital.

Palestinian media reported the two were wounded as they threw stones toward Israeli troops that had entered the village.

The Israeli military said the Palestinians were throwing fireworks at Israeli vehicles traveling on a nearby road, and that when soldiers arrived, they threw firebombs at them. The soldiers opened fire.

The Israeli army has been conducting near-daily raids in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank as violence that began last spring continued.

Since the start of this year, 64 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, about half of them militants, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 14 Israelis during that same time. It has been one of the deadliest periods between Israelis and Palestinians in years.

Meanwhile, an Israeli court convicted four Jewish Israelis of incitement to violence and terror for participating in a wedding in which participants celebrated an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.

The 2015 attack on the village of Duma in the West Bank killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh and his parents, Riham and Saad, and drew condemnation from across Israel's political spectrum.

Months after the attack, a video from a wedding that aired on Israeli television appeared to show guests at a wedding brandishing rifles and dancing to music with lyrics calling for revenge, while some stabbed photos of Ali.

The four suspects were minors at the time of the wedding and acquitted by a juvenile court, according to Israeli media. Prosecutors appealed that decision, resulting in Thursday's conviction in Jerusalem's district court.