IDF says troops shot a firebomb suspect near Zababdeh; WAFA says he was 13

Israeli soldiers opened fire on a person they say was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail at them near Zababdeh, a village lying south of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Times of Israel reported the military's statement, which said the troops hit the suspect and that no Israeli soldiers were hurt. The army did not say what condition the person was in.

The Palestinian side gave a different picture of who was shot. WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, said the person struck by live fire was a Palestinian aged 13, that he was wounded in the chest and that he was taken to hospital, according to the same Times of Israel report. The Israeli news site Ynet carried the army's account in a brief alert, describing the incident as an attack that had been foiled near Jenin.

What the military said

In its statement, posted in Hebrew on its official account, the IDF said forces were carrying out operational activity earlier in the evening in the Zababdeh area, which falls under its Menashe Brigade. The army said soldiers spotted a man holding an incendiary bottle who meant to hurl it toward them and cause harm, and that they responded with gunfire to remove the threat. It said a hit was identified and that there were no casualties among its own forces.

The military also released a photograph of what it said was the firebomb in question. The statement did not give the suspect's age, name or condition, and did not describe what happened to him after he was hit.

Two accounts of the same shooting

The IDF statement and the WAFA report agree on the basic facts that troops fired and someone was struck. They differ on how the person is described. The army refers to him as a terrorist, the term it routinely uses in Hebrew (mehabel) for people it says are carrying out attacks. WAFA identifies him as a 13-year-old. Neither account has been independently confirmed in the material available, and the IDF has not publicly addressed the age reported by WAFA.

Where Zababdeh is

Zababdeh is a Palestinian locality close to Jenin, one of the main Palestinian cities in the northern West Bank. Jenin and the area around it have long been a frequent setting for Israeli military operations and for confrontations between soldiers and Palestinians.

The Menashe Brigade named in the IDF statement is the regional army formation for this sector of the northern West Bank. Mentioning it in a statement tells readers which command was operating at the scene.

Key terms

• Molotov cocktail: a makeshift firebomb, usually a bottle filled with flammable liquid and a burning wick. The Hebrew phrase in the army statement, bakbuk tavera, translates literally as an incendiary bottle.
• WAFA: the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, the body that administers parts of the West Bank.
• IDF: the Israel Defense Forces, Israel's military, which publishes statements on operations through its spokesperson's office and social media accounts.

How these incidents are reported

Early reports of shootings in the West Bank often arrive in this form: a short army statement framing the event as a thwarted attack, followed by a Palestinian report focused on the identity and injuries of the person hit. The details that would reconcile the two, such as the person's identity, medical condition and the circumstances of the encounter, frequently emerge later, if at all.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not give the condition of the person who was shot beyond WAFA's account of a chest wound and hospital admission, and they do not name him or the hospital. The IDF has not, in the material available, responded to WAFA's statement that he was 13, and neither side has described what the troops were doing in Zababdeh or whether anyone was detained.