Israeli military killed 165 children in occupied West Bank in past year: UN

OHCHR reports death toll after Israeli military’s shooting of 11-year-old Abdullah Jamal Hawash in Nablus.

The United Nations says that Israeli forces have killed 165 children in the occupied West Bank over the past year.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported on Wednesday that the Israeli military had killed 36 children in air strikes and 129 with live ammunition, “most in the head or upper body”.

Israeli soldiers shot Abdullah Jamal Hawash, 11, in the chest on Tuesday for throwing stones at an armoured vehicle in Nablus, as reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.

In videos posted by local media, the boy was seen throwing a stone at an armoured Israeli four-wheel drive in the distance before he was shot, falling to the ground.⁠

Hawash posed “no realistic threat” to Israeli forces, said OHCHR’s office in the occupied Palestinian territory.

His death came after Israeli forces shot a 17-year-old in the head in Hebron on Sunday, leaving him in a critical condition.

Three days earlier, another 11-year-old was also shot in the head and critically injured by Israeli troops in the Hebron governorate’s Arroub refugee camp.

The Israeli army also stepped up its offensive in the West Bank overnight, storming Nablus, the city of el-Bireh, the town of Deir Abu Mishal, west of Ramallah, the Balata camp, east of Nablus, and the Fawwar camp, south of Hebron.

In the Fawwar refugee camp, Israeli forces launched an arrest campaign. The Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed that at least seven people were arrested.

In addition, Israeli forces arrested one person from the village of al-Hadab and three people from the town of Dura, both southwest of Hebron.

Israel’s continued onslaught on the West Bank comes as the country celebrates the annual holiday of Simchat Torah.

A video on Telegram, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, showed Israeli settlers performing Talmudic rituals at the Western Wall – which Muslims refer to as the Buraq Wall – in the Old City of Jerusalem in the occupied territory.

The wall is adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Israeli settlers have repeatedly performed Talmudic rituals in the past few months while escorted by armed security forces.

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has stormed the mosque compound multiple times since the start of the war on Gaza.