An 11-year-old Palestinian boy died on Tuesday evening during clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces at a demonstration against the separation fence in the West Bank town of Na'alin.

Ahmed Moussa's death was killed by a shot to the forehead, according to medics and an AP reporter who saw his body at Ramallah Hospital.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said an investigation into the incident was underway.

A Border Police officer was wounded during the protest when he was struck in the eye by a stone. He was taken to the Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, where he was undergoing a series of tests to determine the extent of the injuries and the possibility he may lose his eye.

A number of violent protests have erupted in Na'alin against the West Bank separation fence, frequently developing into confrontations between stone-throwing youths and Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. Dozens of Palestinians and Israeli security forces have been wounded during the demonstrations over recent months.

An organizer of Tuesday's protest, Farah Khawaja, said Israeli forces had erected a makeshift fence to prevent protesters from reaching bulldozers clearing land for the barrier.

11-year-old Moussa is the first fatality in months of Na'alin protests. "We told him not to go down [to the protests], but he wouldn't listen," the boy's aunt, Khadija Moussa, said in a telephone interview.

The military said it would conduct a thorough examination with the forces in the region and consult with Palestinian medical personnel.


He said soldiers fired more tear gas and then live bullets.

Also Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces temporarily suspended an officer over allegations he ordered a soldier to fire a rubber bullet at point-blank range at a bound and blindfolded Palestinian during one such protest, an IDF spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said Lieutenant Colonel Omri Bruberg had been suspended for 10 days until military prosecutors decide whether there is enough evidence to indict him.

The suspension order came a day after Bruberg failed his second polygraph test, after having passed the first test which was conducted in a private institute last week.