The key facts

  • 14-year-old Muataz Daghlas killed in the village of Burqa north-west of Nablus, according to the Palestinian health ministry
  • The Israeli army says soldiers fired 'to eliminate the threat' from people preparing to throw stones
  • Red Crescent: access to a third wounded person blocked, three paramedics detained

Death of a teenager in Burqa

Israeli forces have shot dead a 14-year-old Palestinian during an operation in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say. According to the Palestinian health ministry, Muataz Daghlas was killed on Monday evening in the village of Burqa, north-west of Nablus. The Israeli army said soldiers identified 'several terrorists intending to throw stones' in an area where Israeli vehicles had previously been stoned, and opened fire on them 'to eliminate the threat' (BBC News).

Conflicting accounts of the wounded and paramedics

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews treated two people with gunshot wounds, but Israeli forces blocked access to a third wounded person and detained three volunteer paramedics. Muataz Daghlas's relatives said Israeli authorities are not releasing his body. Meanwhile, the Palestinian news agency Wafa named those wounded during the raid as a 17-year-old teenager who was hit in the abdomen and pelvis, and a 19-year-old man shot in the arm.

UN statistics in context

According to the UN, at least 98 Palestinians, including 22 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the year; over the same period, Palestinians killed six Israelis, both soldiers and civilians. The Israeli military's rules of engagement, according to reports, were expanded after Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, giving soldiers greater discretion in using lethal force against a perceived threat. In June, the UN human rights office said that since then it had confirmed the deaths of 241 Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers; most were teenagers, and in many cases the authorities accused them of throwing stones. According to the UN office's assessment, none of the children killed in confrontations posed an immediate threat to life — the only basis it considers lawful under international law for the use of lethal force in the West Bank. These assessments belong to the UN; the Israeli side did not comment on them in the cited publications.

Israeli troops and military vehicles operate in the Old City of Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank (8 November 2026)Image source, EPA
Image caption,

Israeli forces carried out a raid in the Old City of Nablus, near Burqa, on Sunday

Man sweeps up debris.Digger destroys house. Rubble, dust and concrete.Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine speaks to reporters in hospital in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, after she was attacked by Israeli settlers in the village of Abu Falah (16 October 2026)