BEIT DAJAN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian on Friday during stone-throwing clashes in the occupied West Bank, a Reuters witness said.
The man was shot in the head and taken to a hospital near the West Bank city of Nablus where he later died, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Asked for comment, the Israeli military said the incident was under examination.
The Palestinian killed was involved in a weekly protest against Israeli settlements in the village of Beit Dajan, near Nablus.
A group of Palestinians threw stones towards two Israeli soldiers posted there, and the soldiers then opened fire, said the Reuters witness, a photographer.
A group of Palestinians carried the man away.
Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Palestinians, who have limited self-rule in the West Bank, say Israel’s settlements there will deny them a viable state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing security needs as well as biblical and historical ties to the land. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.
Reporting by Raneen Sawafta in Beit Dajan, Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Rami Ayyub, Editing by Timothy Heritage
FILE PHOTO: A man holds a Palestinian flag stained with blood of a mortally wounded Palestinian during a protest against Israeli settlements, in Beit Dajan in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta