RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – A Palestinian high-school student has been shot dead while he was reportedly on his way to school, during a raid by Zionist troops on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Relatives confirmed to Al Jazeera that the man killed on Monday was Mahmoud al-Saadi. The Palestinian Ministry of Health told Al Jazeera that he was 18 years old, and said he was shot in the stomach.
At least four other Palestinians were wounded after being shot, according to the ministry and local journalists.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education mourned al-Saadi in a statement on Monday. It said he was a student at the Farhat Hashad Boys Secondary School in Jenin and that he had been killed on his way to school.
Local journalist Mujahed al-Saadi told Al Jazeera that the teen was his distant relative and that witnesses he spoke to confirmed that he was killed while standing on the street headed to the classroom.
“He was headed out of the camp. He was surprised by the army, and the army shot him moments before they pulled out [of the camp],” Mujahed told Al Jazeera.
On Sunday evening, a group of Zionist settlers viciously attacked a Palestinian child in the southern part of the occupied West Bank and inflicted serious injuries on him after severely beating him up.
WAFA reported that the settlers assaulted the minor, identified as Yazan al-Rajbi, near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Al-Khalil, inflicting various cuts and bruises on his face. He had to be transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Al-Quds.
All settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
According to human rights groups, acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the occupied West Bank.
Zionist troops have recently been conducting raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.
The Zionist regime has killed 197 Palestinians since the start of 2022 in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 43 children.
Palestinian groups revealed on Sunday, the World Children’s Day, the Zionist occupation army has killed 40 Palestinian children and detained more than 770 others since the beginning of the year.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education said the occupation authorities continue to target Palestinian children, calling on the international community to intervention to protect Palestinian children’s rights, including schools threatened with demolition.
The ministry said the Zionist regime has killed 40 Palestinian children and arrested more than 770 children of school age since the beginning of 2022, indicating that 160 of the detained children are still in detention, including high school students and three girls.
Many schools, it warned, have received final demolition orders including two schools of Ein Samia near occupied Ramallah, and in Masafer Yatta in southern West Bank which may be demolished any moment, threatening the children’s right to education.