Funeral for 20-year-old killed in Israeli arrest raid

Hundreds of Palestinians on Thursday mourned the death of a 20-year-old man killed in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Omar Muhammad Alyan was killed on Wednesday after he was shot in the chest during an Israeli arrest raid in the town of Silwad, near Ramallah.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mourners on Thursday carried Alyan's body from his family house and marched with it during a funeral in his hometown.

Israeli forces on Wednesday also shot and killed two other Palestinians, including a teenage boy, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Israeli troops continued a days-long operation in the West Bank in response to a spate of deadly attacks.

The three deaths, all in separate incidents, were the latest in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has erupted as Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan.

Palestinian political factions in the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative center, called a general strike on Thursday to protest the Israeli operation and the rising Palestinian death toll.

Stores and schools as well as other private and public institutions were shuttered for the day. A strike was also called in the city of Bethlehem.