Teenager among two Palestinians martyred in West Bank violence

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Two Palestinians, including a teenager, were martyred in unrest in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, one of them in clashes during a visit by right-wing Israeli politicians to a sensitive religious site.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mahdi Mohammad Hashash, 15, died of 'serious wounds caused by shrapnel... during the occupation's (Israel's) incursion into Nablus', the largest city in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said three others were wounded in the clashes.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah movement, issued a statement claiming Hashash as one of its members.

A Jewish settler organisation told AFP that eight Israeli politicians – current lawmakers and others elected on November 1 who have yet to be sworn in – were visiting Joseph's Tomb.

'Worshippers'

Hours later, the ministry said Rafaat Issa, 29, had been martyred 'by Israeli fire' in a separate incident west of the city of Jenin.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Issa was shot near the Israeli-built barrier that runs along the West Bank border. There was no immediate information on clashes in the area, but Palestinians have previously been killed while trying to cross the barrier.

Hashash was buried later Wednesday, with family and friends packing the Nablus morgue as the funeral procession began. The Palestinian office of religious sites considers Joseph's Tomb to be an Islamic archaeological monument.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. About 475,000 Jewish settlers currently live in the West Bank in communities considered illegal by most of the international community, alongside some 2.9 million Palestinians. This year is on track to be the deadliest in the territory since 2015.