Ramallah, April 25, 2024—Israeli sniper shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy early this morning.
Khaled Raed Suleiman Arouq, 16, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper around 4:20 a.m. on April 25 in the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Khaled allegedly participated in confrontations with Israeli forces alongside other young Palestinians who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails toward a heavily armored Israeli military vehicle. An Israeli sniper stationed in one of the buildings opposite where Khaled was located shot him in the chest from a distance of 40 to 50 meters (131 to 164 feet). Khaled was transported by a Palestinian ambulance to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
“Palestinian children like Khaled live in a hyper-militarized environment where Israeli forces routinely carry out military incursions into Palestinian communities where they arrest, injure, and even kill Palestinians, including children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Decades of impunity have emboldened Israeli soldiers to shoot to kill Palestinian children without consequence.”
The bullet that struck Khaled hit his chest and exited from the left side, according to information collected by DCIP.
The Israeli forces departed from the Ein Qiniya military camp located west of Ramallah and entered many neighborhoods in the city around 2 a.m. The confrontations broke out between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces while they issued demolition orders for two houses in the Al-Tirah and Umm Al-Sharayet neighborhoods. Israeli forces in heavily armored military vehicles withdrew around 5 a.m.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 40 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
121 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.
