Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza; forces kill teen in West Bank

Israeli aircraft bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank and violent settler attacks against Palestinians were reported overnight.

The violence came after Israel found the bodies of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank after they went missing on June 12. Israeli settlers held their funerals Tuesday.

Israel has blamed Hamas for the three Israeli teens’ abduction, though it has not provided evidence to support that allegation. The Israeli military said it bombed 34 sites in Gaza, most of them belonging to Hamas. At least four Palestinians were seriously injured in the strikes, Palestinian website Maan News reported. Israel's military and armed groups in Gaza have increasingly traded fire in the past week.

In the West Bank, 16-year-old Yousouf Ibrahim was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers as they raided Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli army said Ibrahim threw a grenade at their forces as they carried out the overnight raid, but Palestinian witnesses denied the claim.

"Me and Yousouf were walking, he was carrying a box filled with eggs. We were sitting here for a while, when we decided to go back home. Someone fired toward him," a witness told Reuters.

Local news agencies reported that settlers carried out “reprisal” attacks on Palestinians overnight as human rights organizations urged restraint by all sides.

The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday called on all Israelis and Palestinians to exercise “maximum restraint,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

“We urge all parties to refrain from punishing individuals for offenses they have not personally committed or by imposing collective penalties,” U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said at a news briefing in Geneva.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem on Monday also called on the Israeli government to “refrain from acts of vengeance for the abduction,” and urged the government to “prepare for possible acts of revenge by settlers.”

Sanabel Mohammed Tus, a 9-year old Palestinian, was reportedly injured Monday night when an Israeli settler hit her with his car near Bethlehem. The settler allegedly threw her into a hole in a nearby field, and she was in serious condition, the Palestine News Network reported.

Ashraf Noah Idris, 28, was also injured Monday night after allegedly being run over by a settler near Hebron. And the same night in Hebron, a 19-year-old Palestinian was assaulted and left with a serious head injury after dozens of Israeli settlers allegedly attacked Palestinians in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. Both incidents were reported by Maan News.

Clashes were ongoing Monday night in Hebron, as hundreds of settlers from the Kiryat Arba settlement marched to the center of the city chanting slogans calling for retaliation for the deaths of the three settlers, according to Maan News.

Haaretz reported several other incidents of Jewish reprisal attacks against Arabs in Jerusalem throughout Monday night. A 17-year-old Israeli was accused of attacking an Arab taxi driver in the city with tear gas and a number of Israeli youths also allegedly attacked a young Palestinian, who was hospitalized with injuries.

Late Monday night, Israeli forces reportedly blew up the Hebron homes of two Palestinians it said are suspects in the kidnappings, Maan News reported. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the homes “were not demolished,” but military sources said a fire caused by explosions used to break down the doors “got a little out of control.”

The Israeli military has also carried out hundreds of night raids since the Israeli teens' abduction, allegedly damaging Palestinian homes. Two elderly Palestinians reportedly died from heart attacks. At least six others have been killed as part of the “Brother's Keeper” operations carried out after the Israeli teens went missing.

With wire services