Palestinian boy, 3, hit by Israeli army gunfire dies

A three-year-old Palestinian boy has died four days after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers.

Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the head last Thursday near his village of Nebi Saleh while riding in a car with his father.

He was airlifted to Israel’s Sheba Hospital but died of his wounds on Monday, hospital officials said.

The Israeli military claimed that soldiers had opened fire after gunmen in the area shot at a nearby Jewish settlement.

But the boy’s father Haitham Tamimi told the Associated Press that they had been driving to visit an uncle when the bullet struck.

Mr Tamimi was also shot and treated at a Palestinian hospital.

“I hope this message will be heard: Innocence and childhood are sacred,” he told reporters, adding that Israel had targeted “unarmed people” under the “pretext of self-defence”.

“A person in his home and unarmed receives this treatment?” he added.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has opened an investigation into the incident.

“The [Israeli military] regrets harm to non-combatants and is committed to doing everything in its power to prevent such incidents. The incident is under review,” it stated.

The shooting follows a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in the past year, with nearly 120 Palestinians killed in both areas. Nearly half of those killed were members of armed militant groups, according to a tally by the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis in those areas have killed at least 21 people.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 war.

Around 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The international community considers these settlements illegal or obstacles to peace.