Israeli soldiers opened fire on three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank after they pelted passing vehicles with stones, Palestinian officials said on Friday.
The Health Ministry in Ramallah said a 17-year-old male and a 19-year-old male were killed in the incident near the town of Osarin in the northern West Bank on Thursday evening.
The authority had informed Israel about their deaths, it said.
The Israeli military said two of the three individuals said to have thrown stones had been “eliminated,” while the third person was injured.
According to Palestinian media, the third person, a 20-year-old, was hit by a gunshot in the knee.
The military justified the shots fired by saying that the three individuals had posed a danger to the passing vehicles.
The roads in the area are also used by Israeli settlers.
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the two teens were killed during an Israeli military operation in Osarin. Israeli forces entered the town “amid heavy gunfire, sparking confrontations with residents in the area,” it said.
The situation in the occupied West Bank, already tense, has deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of the current Gaza war on October 7, 2023.
According to the local Health Ministry, 906 Palestinians have been killed since then in Israeli military operations, armed confrontations and attacks.
At the same time, radical Israeli settlers have increased attacks on Palestinian civilians, emboldened by the pro-settler policies of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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