A six-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by gunfire in the West Bank city of Nablus today in an incident which Israel and the Palestinians blamed on each other.
The family of the boy, Khaled Walwil, said he was shot in the neck when Israeli soldiers on a nearby hill opened fire at the family home during a raid in Nablus's Balata refugee camp.
An Israeli military commander, who witnessed the incident, said the boy was killed when a Palestinian gunman fired wildly at the military jeep the commander and his men were riding in.
"I did not fire back at him (the gunman) because his fire was not accurate and he just fired wildly at my jeep and ran back through the alley," said the commander, who under military regulations could only be identified as Lieutenant Colonel Guy.
"About 10 seconds after that I heard from behind my jeep terrible screams from a Palestinian woman. I turned around and I saw a family with a few people screaming. The father held his son who was covered in blood and they ran to ambulances there".
The boy died of his wounds on the way to hospital.
The commander said there was no Israeli gunfire at the time of the incident, although troops had fired at gunmen in earlier fighting during the raid to search for wanted militants.
He said his vehicle was the only Israeli force in that section of the camp at the time and the rest of the troops were on the other side of the refugee camp.
The boy's uncle Said Walwill told Reuters his nephew was killed when Israeli troops on a nearby hill opened fire at the house. He said Khalil, who was looking through a window at the time, was hit by the bullets.
Walwill said he was in his workshop in the three-storey family home at the time of the incident.