Palestinian medical sources at al-Ahli Hospital of the city said Sunday that Khalil Muhammad Ahmad al-Anati arrived at the hospital after being shot in the back by Israeli soldiers, Ma’an News Agency reported.

The sources further added that the gunshot entered through the victim's lower abdomen and exited through his groin.

Doctors tried their best to resuscitate the boy and stop severe bleeding, but they announced his martyrdom shortly after he arrived in the emergency room.

Local residents said shortly before the boy was killed an Israeli military force escorted Israeli engineers into a neighborhood known as Nabat al-Haffara for unknown reasons.

"We don't know what they (the Israelis) were doing," said Yussef al-Anati while crying and his shirt soaked in blood after carrying his nephew to the hospital.

"Khalil was playing in front of the house, then we heard gunfire. The kid was screaming and fell down," he said. "He was shot in the back and the bullet exited through his stomach."

A few young men hurled stones at the soldiers in response to the military incursion, and the soldiers subsequently opened fire at the boys, locals added.

Al-Fawwar is located south of al-Khalil near an Israeli military checkpoint that divides a number of local Palestinian communities close to the local illegal Zionist settlement of Haggay.

At least 17 Palestinians have been killed across the West Bank in the last month, amid widespread public anger and growing protests over an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 1,915 Palestinians in the last four weeks.

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