Palestinian teen killed during occupied West Bank protest

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Friday that “Mohammad Said Hamayel, 15, died in confrontations” with Israeli forces near Beita, south of Nablus, where dozens of Palestinians demonstrated against the expansion of a nearby illegal Jewish settlement at the expense of their land.

The Ministry of Health of Palestine said six others had been wounded by gunfire.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Israeli troops fired live rounds, tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets at the demonstrators. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Hamayel is the eighth Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces this year and the third in Beita, which has witnessed protests in recent months after Israeli settlers built an outpost on the village’s Mount Sabih.

The livelihoods of at least 17 Palestinian families – more than 100 people – are threatened as they depend on harvesting their olives on land they have owned for generations.