Israeli forces kill 14-year-old Palestinian boy in West Bank, health ministry says

Israeli forces have shot dead a 14-year-old Palestinian boy during an operation in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.

Moataz Daghlas was killed on Monday evening in the village of Burqa, north-west of Nablus, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military said soldiers identified "several terrorists who intended to hurl stones" in an area where stones had previously been thrown at Israeli vehicles. The soldiers fired towards them "to remove the threat", it added.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams treated two people with gunshot wounds, but that Israeli forces blocked their access to a third wounded person and detained three volunteer paramedics.

Moataz Daghlas's relatives said Israeli authorities were withholding his body.

Meanwhile, Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two Palestinians wounded during the raid as a 17-year-old child, who it said was shot in the abdomen and pelvis, and a 19-year-old man, who was shot in the hand.

According to the UN, at least 98 Palestinians, including 22 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the year.

Six Israelis, both security forces and civilians, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank over the same period, it says.

The rules of engagement for Israeli forces were reportedly broadened after the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, allowing soldiers increased discretion to use lethal force against a perceived threat.

In June, the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said it had verified the killing of 241 Palestinian children by Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank since then.

Most of the children were teenage boys and, in many cases, Israeli authorities accused them of having engaged in stone-throwing as justification, it found.

The UN office said its assessment was that none of the children killed while involved in confrontations with Israeli forces had posed an imminent threat to life, which it said was the only legal justification for the use of lethal force in the West Bank under international law.