Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian child on Tuesday night, making him the second child to be killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank this year.
Israeli forces killed 13-year-old Mohammad Rezq Salah in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) confirmed.
According to reports, Salah was killed near the Israeli separation wall that separates al-Khader from Route 60, a major highway used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers. Al-Khader is located near a permanent Israeli military checkpoint connecting the West Bank with occupied East Jerusalem.
The Israeli army claimed that its soldiers shot Salah while he was allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at cars on the highway. Salah’s family told Middle East Eye that he was 300 meters away from the wall when he was shot, and “did not pose any significant danger to the army or the settlers” at the time.
Photos published on local Palestinian media pages alleged to show a lifeless and bleeding Salah lying on the ground, stripped of his clothes, with an armed Israeli soldier standing over him.
According to Palestinian media reports, Israeli forces prevented Palestinian ambulances from arriving to the scene. Israeli forces temporarily detained Salah’s body, returning it to his family for burial on Wednesday afternoon.
According to DCIP, Israel is currently holding the bodies of nine Palestinian children after killing them, in line with the state’s policy of using Palestinian bodies as “bargaining chips.”
Salah is the 12th Palestinian to be killed by Israel in 2022, and the second child. 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Salah was shot and killed on February 14th during an Israeli raid on the village of Silat al-Harithiya in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
