RAMALLAH: The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli strike killed a teenage boy on Saturday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where Israel’s military is conducting a major offensive.
Reached for comment, the military said the air force “struck armed terrorists in the Jenin area”.
Ahmad al-Sadi, 16, was killed “following an Israeli air strike on the eastern neighbourhood of Jenin,” the ministry based in Ramallah said in a statement.
The Palestinian Red Crescent earlier gave Sadi’s age as 14 and said two other people were wounded in the strike.
The health ministry said the wounded were “in a critical condition”.
Palestinians say Israeli forces kill two in West Bank raids
Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP that the teenager and the two others “were hit by an occupation drone when they were in the street”.
Last month, the Israeli military launched an assault dubbed “Iron Wall” aimed at rooting out Palestinian groups in the Jenin area of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp have been a hotbed of Palestinian militancy for years and violence there and across the territory has soared since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 877 Palestinians, including many in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 30 Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
On Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed two Palestinians in Jenin after the military announced a soldier had also been killed in the territory.
Ten Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike in the area of Tamun that the military said had targeted.
During a visit to the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the ongoing offensive was aimed at destroying “terror infrastructure” built there “with funding and armament from Iran”.
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