Israeli forces shoot dead three Palestinian teenagers

Witness says one 15-year-old was shot multiple times while on the ground.

Israeli emergency services remove the body of a Palestinian who was shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near Jerusalem on February 14, 2016. Amir Cohen / Reuters

JERUSALEM // Three Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli security forces in two separate incidents in the West Bank on Sunday.

In the first incident, two Palestinians were shot near the city of Jenin. Israeli security forces said they were throwing rocks at passing vehicles and opened fire at soldiers when they arrived at the scene. The soldiers fired back, killing both of them, the military said, adding that no soldiers were wounded in the exchange.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the slain Palestinians as Nihad Waked and Fouad Waked, both 15 years old. They were from the same extended family in the village of Al Araka, near Jenin, but were not close relatives.

Wassef Abu Baker, 56, a resident of the area, said that after hearing gunshots he drove to within 40 metres of where one of the teenagers was lying on the ground.

“He was still moving. The soldier shouted at me to move back and they fired at him – maybe it was 12 bullets,” he said.

Mr Abu Baker said he could not see whether the person on the ground was armed. A spokesman for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a photograph of what appeared to be an M-16 assault rifle on the pavement, which he said was the weapon used against the soldiers.

Later, Israeli border police officers shot and killed a Palestinian at a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

He was identified as 17-year-old Naim Safi of Abadiya village near Bethlehem.

Israeli police claimed he had run at the officers with a knife.

A Palestinian woman was critically injured in another police shooting at a checkpoint near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron.

Police claimed the woman, who was identified as Yasmin Al Zuru, 20, had tried to stab an officer.

Her shooting came a day after another Palestinian woman, 17-year-old Kalzar Al Uweiwi, was shot dead by Israeli troops near the mosque. Police said she had stabbed a soldier, who was lightly injured, and a Palestinian bystander who tried to restrain her and who had to be taken to hospital.

Israeli forces have killed more than 170 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since the current round of bloodshed erupted at the beginning of October. Most were accused of carrying out attacks but others died during clashes and demonstrations.

The violence has claimed the lives of 26 Israelis, as well as an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean.

The latest deaths came as the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, visited Israel and the Palestinian territories for talks with leaders from both sides aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Palestinians say the continuing violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule and dwindling hopes for gaining independence. Israel says it is fuelled by a campaign of incitement by Palestinian leaders that is compounded on social media sites that glorify attacks.

Also on Sunday, a watchdog group said Israel began building 1,800 new settlement homes in the West Bank in 2015.

Peace Now, a dovish Israeli group that tracks settlement construction, said most of the building has taken place in isolated settlements in areas of the West Bank that Israel would likely evacuate in the event of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War and built settlements there. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but nearly 600,000 Israeli settlers remain in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Palestinians claim these areas as parts of a future state, a position that has wide global support. They view Israeli settlement construction as a major obstacle to resolving the conflict.

* Agencies