Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in West Bank clashes

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.

Demolitions

Israel’s army, which said it had completed the demolition and withdrawn from the village, regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.

The practice, which often fuels tensions, has been condemned by critics as a form of collective punishment. Israel insists it deters attacks.

The army said Jaradat was responsible for the death of Yehuda Dimentman, killed when gunmen sprayed a settler car with roughly a dozen bullets as it drove out of Homesh in December. Two others were injured in the attack.

A married father, Dimentman was studying at a religious school in the Homesh, which has remained open despite Israel not recognising the settlement.

Homesh had been evacuated by Israeli forces in 2005 but settlers have nevertheless continued to operate there, fuelling tensions with Palestinians.

Israel arrested four people days after the December shooting.

Around 475,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians, in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the former head of a settler lobbying council who opposes Palestinian statehood.

He has ruled out any formal peace talks with Palestinians during his tenure but said he will work to improve economic conditions in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six Day War.