Palestinians: Israeli army kills teenage girl in West Bank raid

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Palestinian hospital said Israeli forces killed a teenage girl during an army operation in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning.

Khalil Suleiman Government Hospital in the northern city of Jenin said 16-year-old Jana Zakaran was shot in the head and pronounced dead.

The official Palestinian news agency reported that Zakaran was on the roof of her house and was found dead after Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin.

The Israeli military said it was aware of the teenager’s death and an investigation was underway.

He added that troops entered the city and arrested three wanted Palestinians suspected of attacks on Israelis. Clashes and heavy firefights broke out between soldiers and suspects, he added.

Around 150 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, making it the deadliest year since 2006.

The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But young stone throwers protesting the Israeli army incursions and others not involved in the clashes were also killed.

Israel has carried out daily arrest raids across the West Bank, in an operation sparked by a series of Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.

The military says the raids are intended to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but Palestinians say they are entrenching Israel’s indefinite occupation, now in its 56th year.

At least 31 people have died in Arab attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank this year, according to Israeli figures.