Israel-Gaza war: Two Palestinian boys killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - An 8-year-old Palestinian boy and a teenager were killed Wednesday by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Adam al-Ghul (8) and Bassem Abu el-Wafa (15) "were killed by bullets from the occupier [Israel]."
Unverified CCTV footage circulating online and on television news shows a boy being struck by a bullet and falling in the street, sending other children fleeing.
Other images show a teenager also being hit by a bullet and falling, then appearing to call for help as more shots hit the ground around him and other people run for cover.
The teenager can be seen struggling on the ground in apparent agony for at least half a minute.
An official with the Palestinian Red Crescent told AFP that the boy and the teen had been on a side street of central Jenin's main thoroughfare, an area theoretically off limits to the Israeli military as it is under the sole control of the Palestinian Authority.
When asked about the deaths by AFP, the IDF said that "a number of suspects" had hurled explosive devices toward troops.
"The soldiers responded with live fire toward the suspects, and hits were identified," it said in a statement.
Israeli army says "two high-ranking terrorists" have been killed
The army also said earlier it had carried out an overnight raid in the Jenin refugee camp in which it "killed two high-ranking terrorists," one of whom was wanted in connection with a pair of attacks that had left Israelis dead or injured.
The Red Crescent reported having provided aid to six Palestinians wounded by gunfire during that raid.
Since the October 7 attack on Israel and its ensuing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, violence in the West Bank has flared, with nearly 240 Palestinians killed by either soldiers or Israeli settlers, according to the health ministry.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli army arrested a 12-year-old boy in the Jalazone refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said.
The boy would become the youngest Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention, with nearly 200 women and males aged 18 or under released in recent days under an agreement pausing fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Mahmud Ghawanmeh, father of Karim Ghawanmeh, told AFP that Israeli soldiers had summoned him, via his brother, to bring in his son.
"I thought I would be with him for his interrogation, but the officer told me to go back home," he added, without specifying the accusations against his son.
The Israeli army declined to comment immediately on the matter.
Cover photo: REUTERS