Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teenagers on Friday, February 21, during separate raids in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.  

Thirteen-year-old Ayman Nassar al-Haymouni was shot in the chest by Israeli forces while visiting relatives in the Jabal Jawhar area, south of Hebron. He was rushed to Mohammad Ali al-Mohtaseb Hospital by Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medics but succumbed to his injuries shortly after.  

In a separate incident, 13-year-old Rimas Omar al-Amori was fatally shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces. She was pronounced dead at Jenin Government Hospital. Witnesses reported that Rimas was killed near her family home by Israeli troops stationed in the area.  

These killings occurred as the Israeli military intensified its operations in refugee camps across the northern West Bank, including Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, for the second consecutive month. Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by soldiers, forcibly entered a Palestinian home in Tulkarem refugee camp, hours after a similar intrusion by Israeli Military Affairs Minister Israel Katz.  

Netanyahu has ordered increased military attacks in the West Bank following a series of explosions targeting buses near Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.  

Tulkarem Governor Abdullah Kmeil warned that Israel’s plans to escalate attacks in the region and surrounding refugee camps reveal the occupation regime’s “genocidal intent.” He called on the international community and human rights organizations to intervene to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, who have endured 26 days of military offensives.  

Tensions remain high in the West Bank, where at least 920 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured by Israeli military and settler attacks since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.