Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy, 20, during West Bank funeral protest of another boy,12

Israeli troops shoot dead Shaukat Awad, 20, during the funeral of a Palestinian boy, 12, killed by army fire the previous day.

During the funeral of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by soldiers a day earlier, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in clashes that erupted on Thursday. Shawkat Khalid Awad, 20, died of gunshot wounds to the head and stomach in Beit Ummar,” the Palestinian health ministry said.

On Thursday a procession followed the boy’s body, draped in the flag of Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s party, through the streets of Beit Ummar, where he was buried. There the second boy was shot. In response, hundreds of Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers who responded by firing tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

Videos shared on social media showed the town’s streets trashed with debris and stones following the confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

Israeli soldiers also fired tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, and stun grenades at Palestinians attending the funeral of Mohammed al-Alami, 12, a Palestinian boy who was killed the day before in the occupied West Bank. Alami died on Wednesday after being shot by Israeli soldiers while traveling in a car with his father in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar northwest of Hebron, Palestinian authorities said.

Nasri Sabarneh, mayor of the town, said on Wednesday that the father was driving with his son and daughter when Mohammed asked him to stop at a shop to buy something. The father made a U-turn, and Israeli troops nearby began shouting at him to stop. A soldier then opened fire at the vehicle, fatally shooting the boy in the chest.

Sabarneh said he knows the family, who lives in town, and had spoken to the father. The father and daughter were not hurt, he said. “They took my heart from me, they snatched it from me,” the boy’s father told Haaretz.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it launched an investigation into Wednesday’s deadly shooting of the boy.

A military statement said that senior commanding officers and military police – which investigate suspected misconduct by troops – were also looking into the incident. It said soldiers fired at a car that failed to stop at a checkpoint after they fired warning shots.

“After the vehicle did not stop, one of the soldiers fired towards the vehicle’s wheels in order to stop it,” the army said. “We are looking into the claim that a Palestinian minor was killed as a result of the gunfire,” it said, adding the incident was being reviewed by senior commanding officers.

Alami was the second young Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in days, after 17-year-old Mohammed Munir al-Tamimi died on Saturday of gunshot wounds suffered the day before in the Palestinian village of Beita. And late on Tuesday, a 41-year-old Palestinian was shot dead, also near Beita, the Palestinian health ministry said.

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by most of the international community.

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