IDF kills 17-year-old Palestinian, during clash near Ramallah

JERUSALEM POST – Palestinian media report on Saturday (today) that IDF forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian, Laith al-Khaldi, during clashes in the West Bank near Ramallah late Friday evening.

Al-Khaldi was shot in the chest at the Atara checkpoint and later died of his injuries at a Ramallah hospital, the Ma’an news agency reported.

Several other Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets during the clashes with the IDF forces, according to the report.

An IDF spokesperson said that during the incident a Palestinian threw a Molotov cocktail at soldiers who were manning a guard station near the checkpoint. The soldiers shot at the rioter’s lower extremities and he was evacuated by a Red Crescent ambulance.

The spokesperson said the army would investigate the matter.

In a separate incident on Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip Palestinian medical officials said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said several suspects approached the fence at two different points and did not heed calls by soldiers to stop. She said one group threw stones at the security fence and that soldiers fired warning shots in the air before firing at the “suspects’ lower extremities.”

Prior to the shootings, in a suspected attack by Jewish extremists in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian baby was burned alive when the house he was sleeping in was set ablaze.