Palestinian Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank

Israeli soldiers use weapons amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
Israeli soldiers use weapons amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
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Palestinian Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank

Israeli soldiers use weapons amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
Israeli soldiers use weapons amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo

A Palestinian teenager died from his wounds hours after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources said Saturday.

Mohammad Hamad, 16, was shot and wounded on Friday evening near the village of Silwad, near Ramallah in the northern West Bank, and died hours later, a Silwad councilor told AFP.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who was among a group that refused to stop throwing rocks at passing drivers on a road in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said on Saturday.

The army said a number of suspects had hurled rocks "endangering civilians" who were driving on a main road near the city of Ramallah.

"Soldiers at the scene operated to stop the suspects in accordance with standard operating procedures, using live fire as a last resort," it added.

The teenager was near a road leading to the neighboring settlement of Ofra when he was wounded by Israeli soldiers, the councilor said.

The mayor of Silwad said residents had "announced a general strike in the village denouncing this crime".

His death comes amid a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Nineteen people, mostly Israeli civilians -- including 18 inside Israel and a Jewish settler -- have been killed in attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs since late March.

Israeli security forces have responded with raids inside Israel and in the West Bank in which three Israeli Arab attackers and at least 46 Palestinians have been killed.

Among those killed were suspected militants but also non-combatants, including an Al Jazeera journalist who was covering a raid in Jenin.



Israeli Security Minister Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound ‘In Prayer’ for Gaza Hostages

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
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Israeli Security Minister Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound ‘In Prayer’ for Gaza Hostages

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)

Israel's ultranationalist security minister ascended to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Thursday for what he said was a "prayer" for hostages in Gaza, freshly challenging rules over one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.

Israel's official position accepts decades-old rules restricting non-Muslim prayer at the compound, Islam's third holiest site and known as Temple Mount to Jews, who revere it as the site of two ancient temples.

Under a delicate decades-old "status quo" arrangement with Muslim authorities, the Al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and, under rules dating back decades, Jews can visit but may not pray there.

In a post on X, hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: "I ascended today to our holy place, in prayer for the welfare of our soldiers, to swiftly return all the hostages and total victory with God's help."

The post included a picture of Ben-Gvir walking in the compound, situated on an elevated plaza in Jerusalem's walled Old City, but no images or video of him praying.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office immediately released a statement restating the official Israeli position.

Palestinian group Hamas took about 250 hostages in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies. In the ensuing war in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed over 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave.

Suggestions from Israeli ultranationalists that Israel would alter rules about religious observance at the Al-Aqsa compound have sparked violence with Palestinians in the past.

In August, Ben-Gvir repeated a call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, drawing sharp criticism, and he has visited the mosque compound in the past.

Ben-Gvir, head of one of two religious-nationalist parties in Netanyahu's coalition, has a long record of making inflammatory statements appreciated by his own supporters, but conflicting with the government's official line.

Israeli police in the past have prevented ministers from ascending to the compound on the grounds that it endangers national security. Ben-Gvir's ministerial file gives him oversight over Israel's national police force.