Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian teen in West Bank

Ishaq Hamdi Ajlouni, 17, was shot and killed by Israeli forces after he opened fire at the checkpoint on Saturday, lightly wounding a security guard, the agency said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, has claimed Aljouni as a member.

“Our heroic fighters … were able to directly target occupation [Israeli] soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint,” the brigades announced in a statement.

Police said the young gunman, from the Kufr Aqab neighbourhood just north of the checkpoint, used an M-16 rifle to carry out the shooting.

The Qalandia checkpoint is the main gateway used by Palestinians between occupied east Jerusalem and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Violence has engulfed the West Bank this past week since Israeli troops stormed the Jenin refugee camp to arrest two suspects on Monday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Friday condemned Israel’s use of “advanced military weaponry” in the raids, while the United States said the same day it is “actively engaging” with Israel after the surge in violence.

Israeli forces deployed helicopter gunships during the raid of the Jenin camp – a 20-year first in the West Bank – with the gunships pummelling the camp and, in addition to the deaths, injuring 91 people.

A day after the deadly raid, Palestinian gunmen killed four Israeli settlers at a petrol station between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

Hours after that shooting, Israeli settlers stormed through Palestinian towns, torching property and smashing cars, killing one Palestinian man.

Tensions in the region have been high as Israel has been expanding its military raids in the occupied territory in recent months under its most right-wing government yet.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements not recognised by international law in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 War.