Daily Times

Jenin: Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager in West Bank clashes, during what the army on Monday described as an operation to demolish the home of a suspected “terrorist”.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the youth as Mohammed Abu Salah, 17, who was killed after Israeli forces entered the village of Silat al-Harithiya near the flashpoint town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Soldiers and border police had entered the village “to demolish the floor of the residence in which the terrorist Muhammad Jaradat resided”, the army said in a statement. Israel has blamed Jaradat and others for the fatal shooting of a Jewish settler in the illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh in December.

The army said “violent riots” broke out ahead of the planned demolition, “with the participation of hundreds of Palestinians,” some of whom hurled explosives at Israeli troops.

“The troops identified a number of armed rioters, and fired towards them in order to neutralise the threat,” the army said without commenting directly on the teen’s death.

Abu Salah’s body, draped in a white sheet, was hoisted by mourners ahead of his funeral later Monday. Silat al-Harithiya was shuttered early Monday, as commands to attend the burial rang out from the mosque’s loudspeakers.