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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the Hebron district on Wednesday, security and medical sources said.

The sources said the 15-year-old was attempting to cross Israel's separation wall near the southernmost West Bank area of al-Ramadin when Israeli forces shot him dead.

Israeli troops gave him no warning before shooting him, the sources said.

The youth was identified as Yousef Nayif Yousef Shawamrah Abu Akar from the village of Deir al-Asal al-Fauqa south of Hebron.

Israeli forces have yet to deliver his body.

Witnesses said the victim had been foraging for local plants when he was shot, but the army claimed he and two others had been vandalising the security fence.

"Three suspects sabotaged the security fence in Deir al-Asal Atachta, and soldiers at the scene called them to distance themselves and fired warning shots in the air," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

"After all efforts were exhausted the soldiers fired at the main instigators' lower extremities and a hit was identified."

The victim was evacuated to an Israeli hospital, where he died from his wounds.

But the victim's brother, Abed Shawamreh, 23, denied the army's account and said the teenager had been out looking for gundelia, a thistle-type plant used in cooking.

"Every year, people from the village go out to pick gundelia. Today Yussef went with his friends to pick some in an area close to the wall and the army shot at them. They hit him and arrested two of his friends," he told AFP.

AFP contributed to this report

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by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies Report

[Wednesday Morning, March 19, 2014] Palestinian medical sources have reported that a Palestinian child was shot and killed by Israeli army fire near Hebron city, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

The child has been identified as Nayef Yousef Abu Aker, 16 years of age, from Deir al-‘Asal village, south of Doura city in the Hebron district.

Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers aimed at the child and shot him dead, before surrounding his body, and prevented any person from approaching.

Abu Aker was trying to cross into historic Palestine from an area close to the Ramadeen village which borders the Negev.
The soldiers claimed that the child tried to climb the Annexation Wall in the Ramadeen area.

The army is currently withholding the body, and informed the Palestinian side that his body will be handed over to the family in the coming hours.