Palestinian child killed by Israeli gunfire in Ramallah

JERUSALEM

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli gunfire on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a statement, the ministry said the boy had been shot in the head with a rubber bullet during clashes in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in which the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.

Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman Erab Fuqaha said that as many as 350 Palestinians had been injured in clashes with Israeli security forces on Sunday, 55 of whom were hurt by heavy ammunition and 76 from rubber-coated bullets.

“Clashes in Gaza, meanwhile, are getting very violent, but we don't have any death tolls because medical workers there are overworked,” said Fuqaha.

Also on Sunday, at least 44 Jewish settlers -- accompanied by Israeli police -- forced their way into East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to Firas Dibs, a spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Foundation, which manages the site.

Israeli restrictions on Muslim men under 50 entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound -- Islam's third holiest site -- have stoked frictions between Palestinians and the Israeli authorities, which in recent days have led to widespread clashes across the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with some cities in Israel with Palestinian communities.

Extremist Jewish groups now stage almost daily incursions into Al-Aqsa despite a longstanding Israeli policy of banning non-Muslim prayer at the site.

Many Palestinians believe Israel is now reversing this policy while simultaneously restricting Muslim entry to Al-Aqsa in an attempt to gradually transfer management of the site -- which is also considered holy by Jews -- away from its current Muslim administrators.