THE Israeli military is investigating the death of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian officials said Mohammed al-Alami was shot by Israeli soldiers while traveling in a car with his family near Beit Ummar on Wednesday.
The military said troops fired at a car they thought was involved in suspicious activity and failed to stop.
They believed it to be the same as one from which they had seen remains of a newborn baby being discarded, it added.
They tried to arrest the car’s passengers, calling out and firing into the air, according to the military.
When the car did not stop, one of the soldiers fired at its wheels, it said.
Mohammed al-Alami’s family said he was shot in the chest. He was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Hebron but died of his wounds.
Beit Ummar’s mayor said Mohammed’s father made a U-turn to stop at a shop before the soldiers opened fire.
He also accused the troops of storming a local cemetery and digging up a newborn girl’s grave hours after she was buried by her family.
After Mohammed’s funeral on Thursday, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli troops in Beit Ummar.
The Palestinian health ministry said a Palestinian man was critically wounded by gunfire.