Palestinian teen killed in West Bank

ZABABDEH, Palestine — Israeli occupation troops killed a Palestinian teenager near the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as violence surged in the occupied territory.

Meanwhile, in the southern West Bank, troops made two arrests in the deadly on Monday shooting of a settler near the city of Hebron.

"Othman Mohammed Abu Khurog, 17, died after he was shot in the head by the occupation [Israeli forces]," the Palestinian health ministry said.

Abu Khurog was killed when clashes erupted in the small town of Zababdeh, southeast of Jenin, which Israeli forces had entered to make an arrest, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Abu Khurog's death comes amid rising violence in the West Bank.

On Monday, Israeli settler Batsheva Nigri was shot dead from a passing vehicle while travelling in a car near Hebron with her daughter and a man.

Two Palestinian residents of Hebron suspected of taking part in the shooting were arrested on Tuesday as troops pressed a manhunt for the woman's killers, closing off roads in the area, the army said.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called her killing a "heroic act" and a "normal response" to the persistent expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law but, not counting occupied East Jerusalem, around 490,000 Israelis live in such communities alongside nearly three million Palestinians.

With the latest death, at least 219 Palestinians have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far this year.