RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian children Thursday evening in the occupied West Bank and withheld their bodies, local media said.

The boys were killed after Israeli soldiers opened fire on them in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, the official news agency Wafa reported.

The agency, citing unnamed security sources, said Israeli troops withheld the two bodies and declared the area a closed military zone.

No details were yet available about the circumstances of the shooting.

The Israeli military, in a separate statement, claimed that soldiers killed two armed men for allegedly attempting to breach the fence of the Karmei Zur settlement and threw Molotov cocktails at soldiers.

Attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers have escalated in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war in October 2023, killing more than 1,070 Palestinians and injuring 10,300 others, Palestinian figures showed.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.