Relatives cry during the funeral of Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash in the occupied West Bank on 24th August 2021. Photo: by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images
A Palestinian teenager has been killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli troops stormed a refugee camp. Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash, 15, died on Tuesday of a gunshot to the head at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry. “During the mission, live ammunition was fired at troops from rooftops. The troops responded with fire towards the sources of the shooting,” it said. It said that a riot had broken out during the military operation. “During the riot, a number of soldiers spotted a suspect on a rooftop holding a large object in his hands, attempting to throw it at an [Israeli] soldier standing underneath the building. One of the soldiers responded with live fire and a hit was identified,” it said.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had conducted a military operation in order to “apprehend a subject.”
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The killing comes after increased tensions which have seen Israeli warplanes bombing the Gaza strip in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave, which caused wildfires in Israel. In May, Egypt implemented a ceasefire after over 250 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed as Israel assaulted Gaza and Hamas fired rockets from Palestine.Seventy-eight children Palestinian children have been killed since the start of 2021 – 12 in the occupied West Bank and 67 in the Gaza Strip, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).Two Israeli children have were killed during the fighting in May, one aged 16 and one aged five.