RAMALLAH: A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed on Friday evening by Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian medics and eyewitnesses said.

The Palestinian ministry of health said in a statement that the boy was shot in the abdomen by Israeli soldiers, and he was dead when arriving at the hospital in the city.

On Friday afternoon, fierce clashes broke out in the village Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus, between dozens of Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinians threw stones at the soldiers who fired back to disperse them, according to eyewitnesses.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that 25 Palestinian protestors were injured by Israeli soldiers in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, adding that two were shot by rubber bullets and the others suffered suffocation from teargas.

There has been no immediate Israeli army response to the boy’s death.

The Palestinians in the West Bank have been organising weekly protests and rallies against the Israeli policy of confiscating land and constructing settlements.