Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Teenager in the West Bank, the 2nd in 8 Days

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops on Friday shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who also held American citizenship. The Israeli military said its forces opened fire as the teenager threw a firebomb onto a main road in the West Bank that is often used by Israeli settlers, an account that could not be verified.

Dr. Sameer Saliba, of the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah, said that Orwa Abdel Wahab Hammad, 14, from Silwad, a village northeast of Ramallah, was brought to the hospital about 6 p.m. with a bullet wound to the head, and that he was dead on arrival. Other Palestinian reports put his age at 15 or 17.

Local residents said that Palestinians throwing stones clashed with Israeli soldiers in the village after Friday Prayer, but that Orwa was apparently killed hours later.

The State Department called for a speedy and transparent investigation of the killing. 'We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,' Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

It was the second fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank in eight days. Soldiers shot Bahaa Sameer Mousa Bader, 13, in the chest during a confrontation on Oct. 16 near Israel 's separation barrier in Beit Liqya, another village near Ramallah.

On Wednesday a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem plowed his car into an Israeli light rail station in the city, killing a 3-month-old girl, Chaya Zissel Braun, who also held American citizenship. The Israeli authorities treated it as a terrorist attack, and a police officer shot and killed the driver as he tried to flee, the police said. Relatives of the driver said they believed he had simply lost control of the car.

Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, said it had documented the killing of 34 Palestinians in the West Bank or East Jerusalem by Israeli forces or settlers since mid-June, six of them minors. Palestinian and Israeli critics have expressed skepticism about internal army investigations, saying they rarely yield results.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel this week accused President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence against Israelis after Mr. Abbas called for Palestinians to defend their holy sites in Jerusalem 'by all means.' Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide, called the accusation 'unfounded and inflammatory,' saying that 'the Israeli occupation of Palestine remains the main source of violence and instability in the region.'