Israel forces kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Bethlehem: ministry

Israeli forces killed a child in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry reported.

The ministry announced "the death of the child Adam Essam Shaker Ayyad, 15, with a bullet in the chest fired by the occupation soldiers during the aggression on Bethlehem at dawn today".

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces entered Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp, located in the southern occupied West Bank, to "raid and ransack" houses.

It said Israeli troops were confronted during their incursion and shot live and rubber-coated metal rounds, among other weaponry.

Israel's military alleged rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at border police officers during an operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp.

"The forces fired toward Molotov cocktails [sic] hurlers who risked their lives, hits were identified," the army said in a statement.

Ayyad is already the third Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the start of the year.

On Monday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in the northern city of Jenin, Palestinian officials said.

It came as they demolished the homes of two Palestinians accused of killing an Israeli soldier in September.

More than 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis were killed last year across the West Bank and Israel, including East Jerusalem, which is illegally annexed by Israel, according to an AFP tally.

In December, the United Nations said 2022 was the deadliest year in the West Bank since its records began in 2005.

The inauguration last week of the most right-wing government in Israel's history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has sparked fears of a military escalation in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Two of Netanyahu's extreme-right coalition partners have taken charge of critical powers regarding the West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich holds the portfolio for Israeli settlement policy in the territory, while Itamar Ben-Gvir serves as national security minister with powers over the border police force which operates there.

Both have a history of inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.