Israeli forces shoot dead another Palestinian teen in West Bank

The Israeli military shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian during a raid on the town of Tuqu' on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deadly incident in a recent surge of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The boy was shot after Israeli military forces gathered in the centre of town late on Monday and began firing "indiscriminately," according to a report by Palestinian state news agency WAFA citing the head of the Tuqu' town council.

The military shot the teenager, Ammar Yaser Sabbah, with a live round to the chest, the report said. He was rushed to the hospital but did not survive.

The Israeli military told Reuters that rocks were thrown at soldiers who used riot dispersal means and later responded with fire. The military said the incident was under review.

The Israeli military has a track record of using rock throwing as a pretext to shoot and kill Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied since 1967.

Violence has surged in the West Bank this year, and since the start of the two-year war in Gaza in October 2023. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened restrictions on movement and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.

More than a thousand Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank between 7 October 2023, and 14 November 2025, according to the United Nations.

Those killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year include 53 Palestinian minors, according to official Palestinian statistics.

The West Bank is home to 2.7 million Palestinians who have limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled there.

Israel's settlements - on land it captured in a 1967 war - are illegal under international law, and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

Israel denies the illegality of the settlements, citing biblical and historical connections to the land.

Israeli forces have cleared out refugee camps, forcing thousands of Palestinians from their homes and maintaining their longest presence in some West Bank cities for decades.

Human Rights Watch accused Israel in November of war crimes and crimes against humanity over what it said were forced expulsions in the West Bank. Israel denies committing such crimes.