Two Palestinian youths, including one aged just 16, were killed by the Israeli military in Jericho on Tuesday as violence by the Jewish state continues to torment the occupied West Bank.
There has been a surge in Israeli violence in occupied Palestinian territories in recent months, marked by a series of deadly raids and operations by its forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed two people were shot in the chest at dawn by Israeli forces during an attack on Jericho.
The ministry named those killed as Qusay Omar Suleiman al-Walaji, 16, and Mohammed Ribhi Njoom, 25.
The Israeli authorities, however, claimed that the two victims allegedly opened fire toward the Israel Border Police, who then responded with live fire. The army did not detail the purpose of the incursion when contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Nasser al-Anani, director of Jericho's public hospital, said the two killed suffered "wounds right in the heart with explosive bullets."
Two other wounded people were admitted to the hospital, he told the media.
It was the second deadly raid since May 1 on Jericho, an ancient city in the Jordan Valley that lies near the Dead Sea.
Omar al-Walaji, the father of the teenager killed, said his son used to ride his motorcycle to any clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
"He used to work with me at the greengrocer's and he moved around a lot, I didn't know about his martyrdom until they called me from the hospital and I went there," he told AFP, giving his son's age as 17.
Dozens of Palestinian mourners gathered at the family home in Jericho.
Ribhi Njoom, whose family lives in the adjacent Aqbat Jabr camp where the raid took place, told AFP he did not know how his son came to be fatally shot.
"Every time the occupation (Israeli) army enters the camp, young people gather and throw stones at the army," he said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Excluding annexed East Jerusalem, the territory is home to around 3 million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Jericho raid brings to 216 the number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far this year. Some 28 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have also been killed, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides.
The numbers pale in comparison with 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in all of 2022, which was the deadliest in seven years for Palestinians.
