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Atallah Rayyan, 17, was fatally shot at a military post near a Jewish settlement after allegedly attempting to attack Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager near the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank.
According to an Israeli military statement on Tuesday, Atallah Rayyan, 17, attempted to carry out a knife attack on Israeli soldiers deployed at the crossroads of the Ariel settlement.
The statement said that the soldiers at the military post “spotted an assailant who was trying to stab two (Israeli) soldiers.”
“One of the soldiers blocked the assailant’s multiple knife attacks and the commander of the troops who was at the scene shot the assailant and neutralized him.
The statement added that the Israeli forces suffered no casualties. Video released by the military showed a female soldier identified as “Cpl L” who said she was on duty when an assailant “with a knife in his hand jumped at me”.
She said she pushed him away by pushing him and hitting him several times with her gun. The Israeli soldier said the attacker then attempted to stab her before her commander shot her with a single bullet.
However, the video only showed the soldier’s back and no photos or videos of the incident were immediately available.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that a “citizen” was shot dead by “occupation forces”.
Palestinian and Israeli rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force against Palestinian “lone wolf” assailants and of killing suspected assailants who could have been apprehended.
“ The only concern was graduation ”
Rayyan, a high school student, is from the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit in the northern occupied West Bank.
His mother Mahera told local Palestinian news agency Ma’an that her son’s only concern was to complete his education.
“On Thursday, he was planning to meet his friends after finishing the last exam of the semester,” she said, tears streaming down her face.
Rayyan woke up on Tuesday and went to school for an exam, his mother said. He returned home, had breakfast and then left for Nablus to help his father at work as he sometimes does in his free time. But he didn’t go to town.
“Atallah left the house and did not come back,” Mahera said.
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