Israeli attacks kill eight people in Gaza and a teenager in the West Bank

Israeli attacks have killed four Palestinian men and an eight-year-old boy in Gaza, and a 15-year-old boy in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli drone attacked the Wadi al-Salqa bridge on al-Baraka Street in central Gaza on Monday morning, killing eight-year-old Malik Wael Abu Shaweesh, as well as Ali Fayez Isbaitan and Hassan Salman al-Hanajra, the Wafa news agency reported.

In a separate incident later on Monday, two people were killed by an Israeli airstrike at a beach in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The attack wounded 27 people, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

In the West Bank, 15-year-old Ahmad Jawad Jaber died on the way to hospital after being shot in the chest and head during an Israeli raid on the Umm al-Sharayit neighbourhood in el-Bireh, near Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Laila Ghannam, the governor of Ramallah and el-Bireh, was among the mourners at the Palestine Medical Complex where the teenager’s body was taken.

“Today, we witnessed a clear-cut execution in broad daylight,” Ghannam told AFP. She said his killing was “a disgrace to all institutions who claim to uphold democracy and human rights”.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem issued a report on Monday saying Israeli forces have killed 241 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank since October 7, 2023.

“The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability,” said B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak.

Israeli authorities have refused to return some of the children’s bodies to their families, the report added.

Overall, at least 1,085 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 2023.

In Gaza more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed over the same period, according to the figures from the Gaza health ministry.

Israeli attacks on Sunday killed at least four Palestinians in Gaza, including 13-year-old Eileen al-Farra, who died from shrapnel wounds after shelling in the south of the strip.