JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- One Palestinian teenager was killed, and four Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus early on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The ministry said in a press statement that Ahmad Shehada, 16, was killed after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the chest during clashes that broke out in the city at around midnight.
Four other Palestinians were injured by Israeli soldiers in the area, and they were transferred to a hospital in the city of Nablus, the statement noted, adding one of them was in critical conditions.
Local sources said that fierce clashes broke out between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers when dozens of Israeli settlers protected by the soldiers visited the Joseph's Tomb, a holy flashpoint site on the outskirts of Nablus.
Palestinian eyewitnesses said dozens of Palestinians burned tires and threw stones and bottle bombs at the Israeli soldiers and settlers, adding that the soldiers fired back, killed the Palestinian teenager, and wounded four others.
Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses said Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen traded fire near the tomb. No injuries were reported.
There has been no Israeli authorities' response to the victim's death; however, Israeli media outlets confirmed the Israeli settlers arrived at the tomb under the heavy protection of the Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that Palestinians in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, withheld a body of an Israeli teenager who died on Tuesday night in a car accident near Jenin.
The teenager was identified by Israeli media as Tiran Ferro, an 18-year-old high-school student and a Druze citizen of Israel. His uncle, Edi Ferro, told N12 TV news that Ferro traveled to a car shop in Jenin with his cousin to fix a car.
While in the West Bank, the two were involved in a car accident and were evacuated to a local hospital for medical treatment, the army said. Later, "the body was taken from the hospital in Jenin," the army added.
Later in the morning, the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israel's military liaison to the Palestinians, announced measures to pressure the Palestinians to return the body.
The Gilboa crossing and the Salem crossing, the two main passages between the northern West Bank and Israel, will be shut down until the body is released, the office said in a statement. The move was decided following "a security assessment" with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, according to the statement.
Since March, the Israeli army has been carrying out daily raids against Palestinian towns and cities, mainly in Jenin and Nablus areas in the northern West Bank.
According to Palestinian figures, more than 130 Palestinians have been killed since early January, while 29 Israelis were killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank. ■
