IDF says Palestinian child killed in West Bank while playing with unexploded ordnance

A Palestinian child was killed Tuesday and two were injured by a blast caused by previously unexploded IDF ordnance near a military shooting range in the Jordan Valley, the army said, citing reports it received.

A source at COGAT, the Defense Ministry’s agency in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, confirmed the death to AFP and identified the boy as Mohammed Abu Dalah, from the village of al-Jiftlik.

The IDF said troops were dispatched to the scene and provided medical attention to the injured.

The military said that the children were playing with the ammunition in the area of the Tirzah base, near al-Jiftlik.

“The IDF emphasizes that this area is a firing zone and entry into it is strictly prohibited and highly dangerous,” the army added.

The IDF said the incident is under investigation.

“Our crews received the body of a 13-year-old child who was killed after a mine exploded in one of the old camps in al-Jiftlik in the northern Jordan Valley,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Al-Jiftlik village council head Ahmad Ghawanmeh told AFP that three children, the oldest of whom was 16, were collecting herbs near the military base when they detonated a mine.

Ghawanmeh told the Palestinian WAFA news agency that IDF troops prevented residents from approaching the site.

Jiftlik, as well as the nearby Tirzah base, are located in the West Bank’s Area C, which falls under direct Israeli control, as agreed in the Oslo Accords.

The region is littered with unexploded ordnance due to the presence of shooting ranges and decades of military conflict. In Jerusalem, which served as a battlefield in both the 1948 War of Independence and 1967 Six Day War, unexploded bombs are still sometimes uncovered.

The Defense Ministry last month conducted mine and unexploded ordnance clearance operations in the areas surrounding the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley in northern Israel.