Israeli forces have killed 110 Palestinians in West Bank, including 34 children, since 7 October
Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians in raids in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to reports.
As it wages a now three-week-old war on the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel has also stepped up operations against Palestinians in the West Bank, killing dozens and arresting hundreds, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
One of the victims was identified as Ayser Al-Amar by the Islamic Jihad movement, according to Wafa.
A Palestinian was also killed in Jenin and another man in the West Bank town of Qalqiya, Wafa said.
The latest killings take the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since 7 October to 110, including 34 children, and injuring more than 1,900 people.
Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Osaid Hamza Mahmoud Hmaidat in Jalazoun refugee camp in the central occupied West Bank today. He was struck by an expanding bullet that tore through his chest from 150 meters (492 feet) away.
— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) October 26, 2023
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On Thursday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.
Osaid Hamza Mahmoud Hmaidat was shot by Israeli forces with an expanding bullet that struck the left side of his chest, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP).
Expanding bullets used by Israeli forces are designed to expand inside the body upon impact, causing massive internal injuries.
Customary international law prohibits the use of expanding bullets, or any bullets that expand or flatten easily in the human body, though DCIP regularly documents fatalities and injuries seemingly as a result of expanding bullets, also known as dumdum bullets.
"Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children in unprecedented numbers as the international community considers whether humanitarian aid should be delivered as bombs freely rein down or not," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.
"When confronted with widespread and systematic Israeli attacks against an overwhelmingly youthful population in Gaza and the routine unlawful killing of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, the international community has done nothing except perpetuate impunity."