RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed on Friday, Palestinian authorities said, in violence with Israeli settlers who converged on the occupied West Bank town of Huwara after an Israeli family was fired upon in their car there.
However, accounts differed whether the victim was shot by an Israeli settler or by soldiers.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing what it described as local sources, said a group of settlers entered the town and damaged homes and other property. One of the settlers shot the 19-year-old, who died of his wounds in hospital.
The Israeli military said dozens of settlers and townspeople threw rocks at each other. A Palestinian threw a brick at soldiers and they fired in return.
“A hit was identified,” the military statement said, meaning a person was struck by the soldiers’ gunfire. The statement did not identify the individual.
A spokesperson said the military was unaware of a settler having fired a weapon during the confrontations.
On Thursday, a suspected Palestinian gunman shot an Israeli vehicle in Huwara carrying three members of an Israeli family. Israeli security forces tracked him down and killed him. The family was unharmed.
This came hours after two Palestinian gunmen and five Israeli soldiers were wounded in separate clashes.
The West Bank, among the territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has experienced a surge of violence in recent months amid an almost decade-old impasse in U.S.-sponsored peacemaking.
Huwara has been the scene of numerous shooting attacks on Israelis followed by retribution assaults by settlers on the village.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
