Palestinian teen shot dead during Israeli West Bank raid, Wafa news agency reports

NEAR JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday, an incident which the Israeli military said was under review.

There were confrontations with Israeli forces at the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city, during a pre-dawn military raid there, the Wafa report said. The Israeli military said a number of Palestinian gunmen had shot at its troops, who returned fire.

A report was later received regarding a Palestinian minor who was killed, the military said.

“The circumstances of the incident are under review,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

The teen’s death was confirmed by Fawaz Hammad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, Wafa said.

Violence in the West Bank, among the territories which the Palestinians seek for a state, had already been on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that began in October and has since escalated with frequent Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks.