Israeli soldiers have shot and critically wounded a Palestinian child during clashes between Israeli forces and protesters in the occupied West Bank.
The child was in the operating room in a “critical condition, after being shot in the head with live ammunition” by Israeli troops on Friday, said the Palestinian health ministry in a statement.
Palestine’s official WAFA news agency identified the child as Abdulrahman Shteiwi, adding that he was 10 years old and was injured during clashes in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the vicinity of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Residents of Kafr Qaddum regularly hold weekly protest rallies against the Israeli closure of a nearby road. Reports by eyewitnesses said that the regime’s soldiers use unusually violent tactics to disperse dozens of protesters on Friday’s rally.
Separately, at least 33 Palestinians were shot and wounded during weekly demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, the health ministry in Hamas-run besieged Gaza Strip.
The incidents comes amid a relatively calm period along the fence after a ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations came into force between the Israeli regime and Hamas in May.
The weekly rallies along the border have been held since March 30 last year. The Palestinians demand the right to return of those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression.
Israeli troops have killed at least 305 Palestinians since the beginning of the rallies and wounded more than 17,000 others, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. Over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.
The Gaza Strip has been under an inhumane Israeli siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.