Ramallah, March 4, 2024—Israeli forces shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in the northern occupied West Bank today.
Amr Mohammad Ghaleb Najar, 10, was shot in the head by Israeli forces around 5 p.m today during a military incursion into the Palestinian town of Burin, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Amr was sitting in the front seat of his father's car with his younger brother as his father drove through the village of Burin. As they entered the village, Amr’s father was taken by surprise to find Israeli soldiers present. One soldier fired shots towards the vehicle from a distance of approximately 20 meters (66 feet), penetrating the front windshield with two bullets, at least one of which struck Amr in the head. Amr was transported to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus where he was pronounced dead.
“Decades of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces shoot to kill without limit,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “As Palestinian children are increasingly targets in the West Bank, Israeli forces’ rules of engagement seemingly allow direct targeting of Palestinian children where no threat exists to justify the use of intentional lethal force.”
An Israeli infantry force consisting of about 12 soldiers entered Burin around 4:30 p.m. Israeli forces roamed the streets of the village while firing live ammunition, as well as sound and gas grenades, toward Palestinian residents.
After Amr was shot, his father exited the vehicle and urgently called for an ambulance. As residents gathered at the scene, the Israeli soldiers fired multiple shots above the heads of the residents and the child's father. Subsequently, Amr was brought to a nearby resident's house. Then he was transported by a private vehicle to a Palestinian ambulance en route to the incident site, which brought him to Rafidia Hospital.
106 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 dubbed Operation Iron Swords.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 25 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
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 willful killings.
