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Palestinian teen shot dead in the West Bank

15-year-old Muhammad Nidal Salim was shot dead by Israeli security services east of the city of Qalqilya
Social media photo of Muhammad Nidal Salim (Wafa)

A 15-year-old Palestinian was killed and two others wounded during an Israeli raid in the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday.

Muhammad Nidal Salim was shot dead by Israeli security services in the town of Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya.

Two others were wounded, one seriously after being struck in the chest, and the other received minor injuries to the hand.

The ministry said Salim was "killed by bullets in the back fired at him by the occupation [Israeli] soldiers" late on Thursday evening.

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In a statement, the Israeli army said "several suspects hurled Molotov cocktails at the soldiers" and that "the soldiers responded with live ammunition".

The shooting comes as tensions in the West Bank are at an all-time high.

On Sunday at least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were wounded in settler attacks on Huwwara town and other West Bank towns and villages in the Nablus area.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, flanked by soldiers, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus following a shooting that killed two Israelis in Huwwara town earlier in the day.  

At least 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis this year, at a rate of more than one fatality per day. Meanwhile, 13 Israelis and one police officer have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

This follows a steep increase in violence in 2022 when at least 167 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest death toll in those territories in a single year since the Second Intifada. Palestinian attacks killed 30 Israelis last year.

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