RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager yesterday, hours after Jewish occupiers clashed with Palestinian villagers in the West Bank and an Israeli boy received stab wounds.
Palestinian security officials said the 18-year-old was shot by troops after he and a group of Palestinian youths hurled stones at an army patrol near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Israeli occupiers from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and the surrounding area earlier wounded eight Palestinians from Asira Al-Qiblyeh village and damaged property. Some 100 occupiers went on a rampage in the village after a nine-year-old Israeli boy from the settlement of Shalhevet was stabbed near his home early in the morning by a Palestinian who also tried to set fire to abandoned buildings in the settlement. The boy was lightly injured and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment.
Israeli forces imposed a curfew on Asira Al-Qiblyeh and Madama villages and went door-to-door searching for the attacker. A man was detained, but was let off after his involvement in the stabbing could not be ascertained.
An Asira Al-Qiblyeh council member said that at least eight Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, although Israeli forces said only four were wounded. “Glass was broken, they tried to set buildings on fire and vehicles were damaged,” Ahmad Shami said.
