Palestinian media says Israel holding bodies of two teens killed in West Bank

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories: Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of two Palestinian teenagers shot dead near a West Bank settlement, Palestinian media reported Monday, while the military said the pair were killed after throwing Molotov cocktails.

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two as Reda Sami Awad, 15, and Arafat Ismail Awad, 19.

“Israeli forces are holding their bodies,” Wafa said.

According to Israel’s military, soldiers opened fire late Sunday on a group of people burning tyres and hurling petrol bombs towards the settlement.

Two were killed and a third was “neutralised”, the military said.

It said the incident occurred during a “counter-terrorism operation” in the area.

Read more: Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of West Bank Bedouins

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.

The United Nations recently warned that settler violence against Palestinians has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, after an unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,082 Palestinians since then, including both freedom fighters and civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.

Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.