Global Courant
A 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last week has died of his injuries.
JERUSALEM — A 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last week has died of his injuries, Israeli hospital officials reported Monday.
Mohammed al-Tamimi was shot in the head near his village of Nebi Saleh last Thursday while riding in a car with his father. He was airlifted to Israel’s Sheba Hospital, where the boy’s death was announced.
The Israeli army has said it opened fire after gunmen in the area fired on an Israeli guard post at a nearby Jewish settlement.
But the boy’s father, Haitham al-Tamimi, told The Associated Press that he had just strapped his son into the car and they were on their way to an uncle when the bullet hit. The father was also shot and treated in a Palestinian hospital.
The Israeli army has opened an investigation into the incident.
However, rights groups say such investigations rarely lead to prosecution or disciplinary action against soldiers.
The shooting was the latest bloodshed in a more than year-long wave of violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Those fighting have intensified since Israel’s new far-right government took office in late December.
Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the two areas this year, nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an AP count. The military says the number of militants is much higher. But young people throwing stones and people not involved in violence have also been killed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks on Israelis in those areas have killed at least 21 people.
Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians seek these areas for a future state.
About 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Most of the international community considers these settlements illegal or obstacles to peace.
