VIDEO : Mourners carry flag-draped body of 16-year-old Palestinian killed by Israeli forces

The Israeli army killed a Palestinian boy Thursday during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The Palestinian health ministry announced, “Amer Abu Zeitoun, 16, was killed by a bullet in the head fired by the occupation [Israeli] soldiers during the aggression on Nablus at dawn today”.

Israel’s military said “armed suspects fired towards the soldiers, who responded with live fire” during an operation to arrest two people.

The Lions’ Den, a local Palestinian militant group, said its fighters were involved in the overnight clashes in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.

Zeitoun is the fourth Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the start of the year.

On Tuesday, 15-year-old Adam Essam Shaker Ayyad was killed in Bethlehem as Israel said its soldiers fired on people throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

In December, the United Nations said 2022 had been the deadliest year in the West Bank since its records began in 2005, with more than 150 Palestinians killed.

The inauguration last week of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has sparked fears of a military escalation in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.