Israeli soldiers shot 19-year-old Nehad Amin Barghouti in the abdomen during clashes in Nabi Saeleh near Ramallah.

A Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, the health ministry said, in what witnesses described as a confrontation between protesters and Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that a Palestinian “citizen” had been killed by Israeli fire in Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah.

Maan News Agency, citing local sources, identified the victim as 19-year-old Nehad Amin Barghouti. According to them, he died after being “shot by live ammunition in the region of the abdomen”, shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Barghouti hailed from the town of Kafr Ein and was a released political prisoner, the sources added.

Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the entrance to Nabi Saleh, where Israeli troops fired live ammunition, as well as tear gas canisters towards the crowd, Maan reported.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP news agency that they were investigating the incident.

The killing comes days after another teenager was killed by Israeli gunfire near the West Bank city of Jenin.

Mohammed Abu Salah, 17, was shot dead in clashes that erupted when Israeli forces arrived late Sunday to demolish the home of Muhammad Jaradat, a man accused of killing an illegal Jewish settler at the end of the last year. The Palestinian Health Ministry said dozens of people were injured by live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli military.

Last week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian and international rights groups have long condemned what they see as a shoot-to-kill policy and excessive use of force.

B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said it recorded 77 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces in the West Bank last year. More than half of those killed were not involved in any attack, he added.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International said in a new report that Israel was committing “the crime of apartheid against the Palestinians” and should be held accountable for treating them as “an inferior racial group”.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war.

Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law. Today, between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers live in at least 250 illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.