Israeli forces fatally shoot Palestinian child: EU calls for probe

Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian child near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday evening, the local health ministry announced.

The boy has been named as Ali Abu Aalya and stated to be between 13 and 15 years old. The teen was shot during encounters that broke out between Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers in his village of al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah, the ministry said.

Unicef, the UN agency concerned with children’s well being, condemned the killing of Abu Aalya on Friday. “Unicef urges Israeli authorities to fully respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of all children and refrain from using violence against children, in accordance with international law,” Ted Chaiban, the agency’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

On its part, The EU Delegation to the Palestinians has called for an investigation into the incident.“How many more Palestinian children will be subject to the excessive use of lethal force by the Israeli security forces?” it said, adding that the “shocking incident must be swiftly and fully investigated by the Israeli authorities in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.”