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An Israeli border guard officer on Wednesday shot dead a Palestinian teenager in Hebron's Old City in the southern West Bank.

Locals identified the victim as 16-year-old Muhammad Ziad Awad Salaymah.

A local doctor, hearing shots fired, rushed to the Salaymah neighborhood, near the Ibrahimi Mosque, but was unable to revive the teenager.

The doctor told Ma'an that local women were arguing with Israeli forces who were preventing them from reaching Salaymah.

"I followed the women, and when I felt his pulse, I found that he was dead," the doctor said.

Israeli police said the victim appeared to be carrying a fake pistol.

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Salaymah pictured near the Ibrahimi
mosque where he was killed.
"Initial findings are that he had a fake pistol that he pointed at the officers at the time of the incident," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an.

He said the shooting was under investigation, but initial indications were that Salaymah pointed the object at border police who "responded by firing a number of shots at the Palestinian who was critically injured and pronounced dead at a hospital in Hebron a short while after."

Palestinian medics said the body had not been transferred to hospital late Wednesday.

The shooting led to angry confrontations between residents and Israeli soldiers, who deployed to the area in large numbers firing tear gas and stun grenades.

Salaymah's brother was detained and his father was hospitalized with moderate injuries, witnesses told Ma'an.

Two other Palestinians have been killed in Hebron in clashes with Israelis in the past month.