According to the ministry, Israeli forces murdered a Palestinian in the West Bank.

RAMALLAH (AFP) – According to the Palestinian health ministry, an Israeli soldier murdered a Palestinian during a skirmish in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

During battles with Israeli troops in the northern town of Beita, the man was shot in the head and died as a result of his injuries at a hospital in Nablus, according to the ministry.

Residents of Beita have been protesting against the wildcat settlement outpost of Eviatar, which was put up nearby without Israeli authority, since May.

The Israeli army claimed it was “informed” of reports of a Palestinian being killed, and that a “violent riot” had broken out near the Givat Eviatar outpost south of Nablus.

“Hundreds of Palestinians hurled flaming tyres and rocks at IDF and Border Police forces during the disturbance, who responded with riot dispersal methods to restore order,” the military said in a statement.

In the West Bank, which is home to more than 2.8 million Palestinians, roughly 475,000 Israeli settlers reside in fortified enclaves, excluding annexed east Jerusalem.

The West Bank, which Israel won in the 1967 Six-Day War, is seen as a future Palestinian state by Palestinians, while extreme Israelis, like Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, see it as a stronghold of Jewish history.