Israel launches probe into accidental killing of Palestinian teen

Israel launched Tuesday an official investigation into the killing of Palestinian youth after soldiers "mistook" him for a stone-thrower.

The shooting, which killed 15-year-old Mahmoud Rafat Badran and wounded six others, sparked an uproar and renewed the criticism against Israel's apparent lax open fire rules.

In the afternoon, a military notice said the military police has opened a probe into the shooting.

An earlier military statement identified the teen as an assailant, who participated overnight in rocks and firebombs hurling at cars on the 443 highway, a major road connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

An Israeli and two tourists were lightly injured from the rocks, according to Israel's medical emergency service.

Palestinian media said that Badran lived in the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, west of Ramallah in the West Bank. He was on his way back from a swimming pool when the car he was traveling in came under Israeli fire.

The military later retracted its original statement, saying that it appears that the Palestinian teen and the other wounded people were "uninvolved bystanders."

The Palestinian Ma'an news agency said six Palestinians were hospitalized in a Ramallah hospital, including two who remained in a serious condition.

The incident was the latest in a nine-month-long wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which have claimed the lives of at least 205 Palestinians and 32 Israelis, who died in car-ramming, stabbing and shooting attacks.

Some of the Palestinians died after clashes ensued with Israeli security forces during protests. Others were gunned down after allegedly committing -- or trying to commit -- an attack against Israelis.

Palestinians, as well as Israeli human rights groups and some members of the international community, have accused Israeli forces of using excessive force against Palestinian attackers or alleged attackers, even when they do not pose an imminent danger.

Israel charges that the wave of unrest is the result of "incitement" by the Palestinian National Authority, whereas the Palestinians charge it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, where more than five million Palestinians live, and where they wish to establish a Palestinian state. Endit