Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy near Bethlehem, health ministry says

Israeli forces killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy on Monday near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Omar Khmour was shot in the head early on Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and "succumbed to his wounds", the ministry said.

He is the second boy killed in Dheisheh during an Israeli military raid so far this month.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday that troops opened fire after "suspects hurled rocks, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers".

One person was arrested by troops in Dheisheh, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the army had entered the camp "at dawn and launched a campaign of raids on citizens' homes".

Khmour is the fourteenth Palestinian killed in the West Bank since the start of the year, the majority shot dead by Israeli forces, according to an AFP tally.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by Israeli rights group B'Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.