Israeli soldiers kill unarmed Palestinian who assisted wounded driver

Governor Kamel Hmeid said Israeli troops in the adjacent village of al-Khader fired at a car and wounded the driver late on Wednesday night.

Ahmad Manasra was in the car behind and got out of his vehicle to help the wounded man, but was shot in the abdomen. As Manasra was returning to his car, the Israeli soldiers shot and killed him, he said.

"This is a summary execution and Israel bears the full responsivity for this crime," Hmeid said.

The Israeli military said a soldier stationed at a military post near Bethlehem identified rocks being thrown at Israeli vehicles and in response fired his weapon. The military said it was investigating the incident, which comes amid heightened tensions in the West Bank.

On Wednesday, night Israeli forces also killed two Palestinian men close to a religious site in the occupied West Bank.

Raid Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Nouri, 20, died after being shot late Tuesday by Israeli troops near the Joseph Tomb's near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The Israeli army claimed that explosives were hurled from a vehicle as Jewish worshippers visited the site late on Tuesday.