Palestinian Stone Thrower Shot Dead by Israeli Troops

Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank shot dead a Palestinian teenager who hurled rocks at a patrol, the army said.

The incident occurred in the Beit Ummar area near the city of Al-Khalil, Al Jazeera reported.

The Palestinian Health Ministry named the slain Palestinian as 15-year-old Khaled Bahar.

“Rocks were hurled at the soldiers, wounding one of them lightly,” a spokesperson said, adding that the soldiers first fired warning shots “and then [fired] towards the suspect, resulting in his death”.

Violence since October 2015 has killed 235 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out alleged knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians, as well as Israeli and international rights groups, say Israeli forces have, in some cases, used excessive force to subdue attackers.

Meanwhile, Israeli police defended the officers who shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian woman accused of trying to stab them on Wednesday, after video emerged appearing to show them fire at her as she lay on the ground.

Police said an inquiry had been opened into the shooting.

No Israelis were hurt in the incident at a junction near the Palestinian city of Nablus, police said.

“The video shows a partial picture of the event,” police spokesperson Luba Samri said in a statement. “It is not possible to see the terrorist moving towards the officers while handling the knife and endangering their lives.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry harshly criticized the shooting, saying that “the recording shows the soldiers continued to shoot her despite her falling to the ground and not representing any threat to them”.