Boy, 14, killed by Israeli fire near Burqa; army says troops shot at stone-throwers

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli army gunfire overnight on the outskirts of Burqa, a village near the West Bank city of Nablus, The Times of Israel reported, citing Palestinian health officials. The health ministry of the Palestinian Authority named him as Mu'taz Iyad Daghlas and said it learned of his death after Israeli authorities took his body from the village.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its soldiers had seen a group it described as terrorists who intended to throw stones at a highway used by Israeli drivers, at a spot where cars had been stoned before. According to the army, the troops opened fire "to remove the danger" and "hits were identified." Two other young people, aged 17 and 19, were wounded and taken to hospital, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA as cited by The Times of Israel.

Two accounts of the same shooting

The Israeli and Palestinian descriptions of what happened differ. In the army's telling, the soldiers were responding to an imminent threat to motorists on the road. WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, described the people fired on as a group of teenagers, and said ambulance crews were kept from reaching the boy before his death was declared. WAFA also reported that Israeli forces detained the boy's father; the available text of that report is cut off, so further details of the arrests are not known.

A third description appeared on News.co.il, an Israeli Hebrew-language news channel on Telegram, which posted that Israeli soldiers had fired on a terrorist who endangered the lives of the troops and posed a threat in Burqa. That post framed the danger as one to the soldiers themselves, rather than to drivers on the highway as the army's statement did. It added that, according to Arab media outlets, the person killed was a 14-year-old child.

None of the reports includes footage, witness accounts beyond the Palestinian agencies, or other material that would settle which version is accurate.

Where Burqa is

Burqa lies in the northern West Bank, close to Nablus, one of the largest Palestinian cities in the territory. The Hebrew report placed the village in Shomron, or Samaria, the name Israeli officials and media commonly use for the northern part of the West Bank. The area is crossed by roads used by Israeli civilians travelling to and from settlements, and by Palestinian residents of the surrounding villages.

The bodies involved

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is the governing body that administers parts of the West Bank under arrangements stemming from the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. Its health ministry routinely announces deaths of Palestinians killed in incidents with Israeli forces, and WAFA is its official news outlet. The IDF is Israel's military, which operates throughout the West Bank and issues statements through its spokesperson's office after incidents of this kind.

Stone-throwing and open fire rules

Stone-throwing at Israeli vehicles is a recurring feature of friction on West Bank roads, and Israel treats it as a potentially lethal attack because of the danger to drivers at speed. The army's statement placed this incident in that category, saying stones had previously been thrown at Israeli cars at the same location. Palestinian officials and rights groups have long contested the use of live fire against stone-throwers, particularly when minors are among those hit. In this case, the army did not say that any stones had actually been thrown before the soldiers fired; its statement referred to people who planned to throw them.

What the reports do not say

• The IDF has not said what the soldiers saw that indicated an imminent stone attack, or whether any stones were thrown before they opened fire.
• No Israeli response has been reported to WAFA's claim that ambulance crews were blocked from reaching the boy.
• The reports do not say why Israeli authorities took the body, whether it will be returned to the family, or on what grounds the father was detained.
• It is not known whether the military will open an investigation into the shooting.
• The condition of the two wounded young men has not been reported.