Nihad Abu Ali can't forget the last words she heard from her son Ali on the eve of his 15th birthday.

"Mom, guess what will happen tomorrow? I will grow up in another new year," she recalled, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"He was planning to buy a cake for his birthday, but we have lost him," the bereaved mother said.

The Palestinian teenager was shot and seriously injured by an Israeli soldier during the weekly anti-settlement demonstrations on Dec. 4 in the village of Al-Mughayir, 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) northeast of Ramallah.

He was rushed to hospital after failed attempts to stop his internal bleeding, where he was pronounced dead.

"He was very affectionate. He was all the time around me helping, joking and kissing me," the mother said. "But now, he has gone forever."

Ayman Abu Alia, his father, remembers waking up his son on the eve of his death to help his grandfather graze the family's animals.

"I told him that his grandfather needs him," the father recalled. "He prayed and left to help his grandfather. I remember his prayers as well."

The teenage boy used to go with his grandfather to the east of the village where the water wells are located to graze the animals.

"Israeli settlers are controlling our water and land there under the protection of the army," Abu Alia said. "They smashed water pipes that we used for irrigation, and even threatened Ali and his grandfather several times before."

As he was standing in front of his grandfather's house, Ali heard the sound of gunfire. He ran to the east of the village to join his brothers and friends in the demonstration.

"I saw him watching the demonstration with his friends," his 18-year-old brother Bassam told Anadolu Agency (AA). "He was standing with his hands in his pockets chatting about his birthday when an Israeli soldier shot him."

Bassam has been shot several times before during demonstrations, the latest of which was a week before his brother's death.

Sitting in a room where Ali's photos are hung everywhere, Abu Alia recalled his son's joy when he recently found out that his sister had given birth to a baby boy.

"He was full of happiness because his sister has given birth to a baby that looked like him," Abu Alia said.

His sister Aseel couldn't speak to AA due to her deep grief, only saying that she has named her baby after her brother.

His grandmother, Khayriat Abu-Alia, is still unable to believe that she has lost her beloved grandson on his birthday.

"He was around us. He was always there whenever we need him," she said. "Every night, I call on him at night but he no longer answers me. I can't forget the loss of my beloved grandson."