A Palestinian youth was killed on Saturday in a clash with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Tekoa, near Bethlehem, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
Earlier in the day, armed Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank after a Palestinian intruder stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli boy, 9, in an illegal Jewish outpost in the area, Israeli officials said.
At least four Palestinians were wounded in that confrontation, some by live fire, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Unrest has simmered for days in the West Bank with a string of confrontations involving settlers, Palestinians and the Israeli security forces there.
A Palestinian staff member at a hospital near Bethlehem said the youth who died had been shot in the chest. The independent Palestinian news agency Maan said he was 16. An Israeli Army spokesman said a soldier had fired a single round to disperse a demonstration and that a Palestinian was hit and later died.
The army was investigating, the spokesman said, adding that the soldiers entered Tekoa after two American tourists were lightly wounded when stones were thrown at their bus.
About 7:30 a.m. Saturday, a Palestinian entered the settlement outpost of Shalhevet in the northern West Bank and set fire to an empty house there, the Israeli Army spokesman said. The intruder, who later fled, stabbed the boy after the boy saw him and shouted, the spokesman said.
Shalhevet lies a few hundred yards from its parent settlement of Yitzhar, south of Nablus. Scores of settlers from Yitzhar gathered at the nearby Palestinian village of Asira al Qibliya and some opened fire. A local village council member told the Israeli Web site Ynet that a number of the village?s houses and cars had been damaged in what was described as a reprisal raid, which lasted for hours.
Israeli Army soldiers were at the scene, but the army says it does not have the authority to act against Israeli civilians. It was unclear what actions the army took. But according to Army Radio, Israeli forces later confiscated the weapons of two of the settlers who took part.
On Wednesday about 20 settlers threw stones at residents of Asira al Qibliya, and the Palestinians threw stones back. Military officials said Israeli soldiers had fired into the air and at the legs of the Palestinian demonstrators to try to restore order.
The same day, settlers clashed with Israeli soldiers and military officials who came to another Jewish outpost near Ramallah to confiscate equipment used for illegal construction.
That night, the military said, dozens of settlers gathered at an army base near yet another outpost west of Ramallah and damaged the water supply.
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