In the shooting, 17-year-old Iyad Rahwa Qarabsi was killed, and Mahmoud Issa Jabarin, 16, wounded. Jabarin was admitted to Ramallah Hospital with a stomach wound.
Clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israel Defense Force troops shortly after the incident, and the IDF declared the village a closed military zone, barring Israeli citizens from entering.
Palestinian Authority cabinet secretary Abdul Ahmed Rahman condemned the act and accused the government of responsibility. After the shooting, the markets in Ramallah and El-Bireh closed in mourning.
Palestinians claimed that two Israeli settlers got out of a car and opened fire at a group of teenagers walking along the roadside. The Palestinians said the vehicle was a Ford and had Israeli license plates, and that the settlers had opened fire without provocation.
Sivan said that, according to the initial police investigation, the settler’s car was stoned and he opened fire in the direction of the youths, but did not get out of his car. Police questioned eyewitnesses at the village and found empty shell casings at the site and other details, he said.
Regulations require that anyone who opens fire must report the incident to the authorities.
The incident was the second within several days in which Israeli citizens opened fire on Palestinian youths allegedly throwing stones. On Tuesday of last week, Palestinians claimed a settler shot and lightly injured 16-year-old Mohammed Musa Dweik in the village of Zatara near the settlement of Tekoa. Dweik was hospitalized in Jerusalem’s Mokassad Hospital with a gunshot wound in the leg.