Israeli forces have opened fire on a group of children in the occupied West Bank, killing a 14-year-old Palestinian-American boy and wounding at least two others, according to the Wafa news agency.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim on Sunday as Omar Mohammed Rabea, and said he was shot near the town of Turmus Aya, northeast of the city of Ramallah.
The Israeli military said it had killed a “terrorist” who was throwing stones.
The attack comes amid a sharp rise in Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including a large-scale offensive in the north of the territory that has killed at least 99 people.
Some 17 of the victims were children, according to United Nations figures.
According to Wafa, Israeli officials arrested Rabea, later pronouncing him dead, and have withheld his body.
Two other Palestinian boys, aged 14 and 15, were shot in the attack that killed Rabea, the agency reported. The boys, who hold United States citizenship, were wounded in the abdomen and the thigh and were transferred by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to a hospital for treatment.
Laila Ghanem, the governor of Ramallah and el-Bireh, visited them at the hospital and condemned the attack.
She said the deadly assault comes “within the context of ongoing organised terrorism” by the state of Israel and accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting Palestinian children to destroy the Palestinian people.
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