West Bank violence kills Palestinian teen, British Israeli mother

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Monday claimed the lives of a Palestinian teenager and a British-Israeli mother who succumbed to injuries from a West Bank gun attack that earlier killed her two daughters.

Tensions have flared into bloodshed since last week, with heavy clashes, shootings, rocket strikes and a car-ramming attack marring a period when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincides with the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter.

And on Monday several ministers from Israel’s hard-right government joined a protest march by Jewish settlers, held under tight security in the north of the occupied West Bank.

In the latest West Bank shooting, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded two other people, the Palestinian health ministry said, during what the army described as a raid to arrest a “terror suspect”.

Mohammed Fayez Balhan, 15, died after being shot “with live occupation (Israeli) bullets in the head, chest and abdomen”, the ministry said, having earlier reported that two others were injured by Israeli bullets.

The Israeli army confirmed its forces were operating in the Aqabat Jaber camp, the site of previous deadly Israeli raids this year, near Jericho, where soldiers were seeking “to apprehend a terror suspect”.

The army said troops responded with live fire after “suspects opened fire toward (soldiers), hurled explosive devices and Molotov cocktails”.