Israeli army kills 16-year-old Palestinian in West Bank, claiming youths threw explosives

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian health authorities say that Israeli security forces have killed a 16-year-old Palestinian in a confrontation in the southern occupied West Bank. Saturday’s shooting marked latest violence to roil the territory during one of the most violent stretches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in nearly two decades. The death of Milad al-Rai brings to 185 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year by Israeli fire, including over 30 youths under the age of 18. This year’s death toll in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has already overtaken that of 2022, which had been considered the deadliest year since the United Nations began tracking in 2005.