Ramallah, November 11, 2024—Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian boy on November 3 in the southern occupied West Bank.
14-year-old Naji Nidal Naji Zamaara was shot and killed by Israeli forces on November 3 around 4:30 p.m. near the Ramuz neighborhood in the Palestinian town of Halhul, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Naji was shot while playing in a nearby mountainous area when Israeli soldiers moved through the area in an ambush operation.
“As Israeli forces bomb and starve Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, they are targeting children in the occupied West Bank with lethal force,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Years of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces kill Palestinian children without limit or consequence.”
Naji’s family received a phone call informing them that Naji had been shot by Israeli forces. The father arrived at the scene to find his son lying on the ground, surrounded by Israeli soldiers. While they transported the child into a military vehicle, the father attempted to approach but was stopped, with soldiers striking his right hand with a rifle, resulting in a fracture in his wrist.
Israeli forces withheld Naji’s body before handing it over two hours later to a Red Crescent ambulance at the Etzion junction. He was then transferred at 7 pm to Mahmoud Abbas Governmental Hospital in Halhul, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Naji was struck by a bullet in the abdomen, which exited through his back, causing fatal bleeding.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 87 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
168 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.
